So, NOW she’s a “Tea Party person”
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers is having quite a rocky relationship with folks in her new majority Republican district. A recent survey by Public Policy Polling found that she was leading her Democrat opponent Steve Wilkins by only 44-28 in this VERY Republican district. (That same poll also found her with an 81 percent unfavorable rating.)
Prior to the May primary, Miss Renee decided she was going to pick a fight with the very same Tea Party folks who propelled her past Bob Etheridge in 2010. She blew off meetings with local Tea Party leaders in DC. Miss Renee also marched herself down here to Moore County to lecture local Tea Party leaders about how they “just don’t have a clue” about all of that complicated stuff on Capitol Hill.
Some associates and I confronted the congresswoman at an area meeting before the May primary. We quizzed her about her vote IN FAVOR of increasing the federal debt limit. She defended her vote by saying that U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) told her to do it. She also described House Speaker John Boehner as her “boss.” (I always thought that was us.)
Renee announced her opposition to the state’s marriage amendment, which put her at odds with local Tea Partiers, and ended up passing with a 2/3 majority. In an interview with our local Pulitzer Prize winning paper, she said she “never really was a Tea Party person.”
In her campaign ads, Renee trumpeted a National Journal survey which said she was the most conservative member of the state’s US House delegation. (Never mind that conservative groups like Heritage Action and The Club For Growth ranked her as one of the more liberal Republicans in the state’s delegation to DC.)
Renee won renomination in May with an uninspiring 54 percent of the vote against three unknown, underfunded challengers. She LOST Randolph County and had a close race in Moore.
So after that experience, Renee has apparently decided that she IS, after all, a “Tea Party person”:
[…] That could be, in part, due to a surge of tea party-backed candidates, including 2nd District Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, who have won state and national elections since 2008.
Ellmers said the tea party’s concerns about big government and the ever-increasing national debt perfectly mirror her own values, which is why she remains committed to furthering the movement in Washington, D.C.
“Those are the things we’ve passed in legislation. Those are the goals we’re trying to achieve – smaller government, lower taxes, less reform for our businesses,” she said. […]
For someone who has allegedly rediscovered the Tea Party “religion,” Renee’s silence on the RNC’s efforts to cut grassroots activists out of the convention process sure was DEAFENING.
Renee is *not* a Tea Party Constitutional Conservative. She is not as conservative, according to Heritage and other ratings, as she would like us to believe. She was disparaging and insulting to local conservatives during meetings this past primary.
Unfortunately she is a more conservative, better choice than her Democrat opponent. And the Libertarian candidate literally stands no chance of election and has some issues of his own. The primary is over; we wanted a more conservative choice, but the primary voters blindly voted for Renee again based only on name recognition and incumbent advantage.
So, Renee it is…. But I applaud the Haymaker for continuing to hold her “feet to the fire” and to call her out on her insincerities. I’m hoping that we get another better choice in the 2014 primaries.
Definitely! We need a genuine conservative in the 2014 primary. Ellmers is as phony as a three dollar bill. But we have to hold our nose in 2012 .
Give her new district time to get to know her. Not sure why they drew Johnston County out of her old district, but I suspect she had a word with the re-districting folks at the State house about getting Franklin County removed. They were skeptical of her in 2010 and she didn’t carry them in the Primary that year, either.
During redistricting, the Republicans in the GA gave Johnston county to the 7th district so David Rouzer could win there. Surprise! McIntyre defeated him in 2012!
Here is another potential phony who is pulling the wool over the eyes of the Tea Party – Dan Forest for Lt. Governor.
Forest accepted the endorsement of Mr. Anti-Tea Party of 2012, Mike ”The Huckster” Huckabee and really played it up. Huckabee has a consistent record of endorsing the establishement candidate in most of the key races that the Tea Party was in during primaries this year. He is not one of us. He is our enemy. RedState calls him a ”pro-life statist” and the Club for Growth has called him a ”Christian socialist”. Not terms fit well.
Now Forest has brought The Huckster in to campaign with him.
As far as I am concerned, Forest has shown his true colors. I can hold my nose a lot easier for a Romney or a McCrory than I can for a Huckabee man. Who is the Libertarian candidate? And, yes I know th3 Democrat in this race is really awful.