Ellmers: Heritage Action = Hypocrites
Second District congresswoman Renee Ellmers hosted a town hall meeting in Pinehurst Tuesday night. And, of course, we were there with a camera rolling.
During the more than 150-minute event, Ellmers responded to critics who question her — and her colleagues’ — level of conservatism:
”How do you tell who is more conservative? Is there a mood ring out there somewhere?”
Dee Park, a local activist affiliated with Heritage Action for America, had a nice comeback (roughly at the 1hr, 35 minute mark on the video) :
“Heritage Action has a nice mood ring on their web site. It says you’re a 57.”
Heritage ranks members of Congress on a scale of 1 to 100 — with 1 being ultra-liberal and 100 being ideally conservative.
That comment from Park appeared to set Ellmers off:
“I understand you are a fan of Heritage. I was too. I still hope to work with Heritage Action. The problem is – they score against things, Republicans, and they’re kinda hypocrites when they do it. They pick and choose what to score.”
(Never mind that Renee ran a campaign ad in 2012 touting her conservative ranking from National Journal. Those rankings are apparently OK when they say the “right” thing.)
Ellmers points out that Heritage Action supports the effort to defund ObamaCare via the upcoming continuing resolution — a move she opposes. She alleges that Heritage has targeted some Republicans who have officially signed on to the move, and is NOT targeting some who have NOT signed on:
“They’re all about raising money so they can stay relevant.”
(And what are you doing, sweetheart?)
Ellmers also had words for FreedomWorks for encouraging activists to protest at Senator Richard Burr’s office:
“Why are they going to Burr’s office? Why not Kay Hagan? She’s up for reelection, and she was the deciding vote for ObamaCare.”
This is not the first time Ellmers has taken Heritage to task. Heritage responded to those attacks by releasing audio of Ellmers speaking at Heritage in 2011, praising Heritage and enthusiastically endorsing the idea of defunding ObamaCare via a continuing resolution.
To me, it seems like Ellmers is hearing some heavy footsteps approaching from the rear. I have really good information that a highly-respected, very viable resident of the Second District will be announcing a primary challenge to Ellmers next week. It is also my understanding that groups like FreedomWorks, Heritage Action, and The Club For Growth are aware of this primary opponent — and are very supportive.
You are busting on Renee over this?! Pretty weak, Brant.
In more important news, Rep. Ellmers came out strongly against military strikes against Syria….
So you’re saying it is weak that freedom loving Americans are willing to hold their Republican Member of Congress accountable (who ran entirely in 2010 on defunding/repealing Obamacare) for not being willing to defund Obamacare through a completely appropriate process? Let’s examine this a bit further or should we address the predictably predictable issue of opposing the President on directionless military strikes on a country being torn apart by Al qaeda and a tyrant? What’s weak is your inability to see a shiny object when you see one.
But hey, let’s all agree, that as long as she’s tough on opposing military strikes in Syria we can welcome government controlled healthcare into our lives.
John,
While the Syria position is the correct one, the Obamacare disaster is the issue that will have much more devastating and far reaching consequences for this nation.
As the lead organizer of the Defund Obamacare protest at Senator Burr’s office (I requested and received the permit) – I’m bringing heat to Renee on Twitter today. If she is for funding Obamacare, she opposes my two sick kids. And why not Hagan? If Renee herself won’t stand with us to defund Obamacare, does she really think Hagan, who voted for Obamacare, would vote to defund? We protested at Burr’s because, as a conservativee who repeatedly tells us he is opposed to Obamacare, we feel making him feel the heat could change his position. Ellmers is insane, in my opinion. I’ve had face to face conversations with her twice and she didn’t seem to even want to talk with me. I even tried to tell her about my two sick kids at an AFP event “Hands off my Health Care” in Raleigh. She acted like I was a bother and it was painful to even have to converse with me.
Acting like a whiney 5yo crybaby is very unbecoming of a Congresswoman.
Rep Ellmers made promises to her constituents that she would do everything and anything in her power to get rid of Obamacare. The fact that she now is not willing to do that shows a major character flaw.
Here is Renee’s score from Conservative Heritage Action. http://heritageactionscorecard.com/members/member/E000291 You will see listed all 20 bills and 3 possible bill sponsorships that each and EVERY member of the House have been held accountable for. Interesting that many still have conservative scores in the 90’s. Gee Renee, maybe you should pay attention to what those Principled Conservatives are doing and stop listening to John Boehner. We are shining the light on you and holding you accountable. I know it’s hard to see the truth about yourself, but how about you put on your big girl panties, Apologize to your constituents and DO THE RIGHT THING. #DefundObamacare
Renee is a fraud and appears to be the true hypocrit here. Too bad she is a coward and can’t own up to her own mistakes. She claims Obamacare cannot be defunded via the CR which is a lie. Either she is ignorant of the facts or just flat out lying. Since she’s had a lot of time to get her facts straight I’ll now assume she’s lying. Renee is the epitome of what’s wrong with Congress. She fits right in with the liars, cheats, users, kool-aid drinkers and thiefs. She will be replaced. To ignore a woman with sick kids who is living the nightmare of Obamacare is the height of arrogance. She cannot be gone soon enough. If she thinks she can take on the armies of activists at Heritage Action, Freedom Works, and Club for Growth, she is out of her league.
Look at the State election web site, ncsbe.gov for schedule of events. February 2014 is candidate filing. May 2014 is primary elections. It’s time now to declare candidacy for the primary and organizing.
In North Carolina you don’t need to be a resident of the District to run for the Office.
Renee is as phony as a three peso bill. She will not support defunding Obamacare, so conservatives should defund her campaign by not contributing to her. In fact, we should open our checkbooks to her primary opponent. I contributed to Renee in 2010, but I would not give her a centavo now, and will write a check to her primary opponent.
I’m with Raphael. Renee Ellmers got elected through the efforts of the tea party and now she thumbs her nose at them. That’s class! I too sent Renee money in 2010, and still get mail from her. She is so wasting her money on me!
I am sick of those who come to us lowly voters with their hat in their hand, but then once elected get all uppity. They need to be reminded daily that they work for us. It’s WE THE PEOPLE, for Pete’s sake. We pay their salaries!
“I am sick of those who come to us lowly voters with their hat in their hand, but then once elected get all uppity.”
I do have to say though, that while there are entirely too many pols like this, Ellmers really stands out in this category. She may or may not be insane as someone else has suggested but I honestly opine that she is the most politically tone deaf creature I have ever seen, excepting maybe West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller. (“We’re going to give them healthcare reform whether they like it or not”)
Ellmers is a water girl for the Republican leadership and their anti-American Republican. As a rubber stamp for Cantor and Boehner, she is NOT listening to nor voting in the interests of her constituents.
She spent over an hour at this town hall making excuses why ObamaCare could not be defunded by the CR – saying that this would not be effective – yet she voted 40-50 times for the ineffective motion to repeal ObamaCare, knowing it would never get through the Senate. So, why not vote to defund????
She also has no concern whatsever for the plight of the 23 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, or the 90 million who have dropped out of the workforce entirely. Especially younger people trying to get their first jobs, or college students graduating and looking for work. Instead, at the behest of big donors and corporate interests, she wants to flood the U.S. with foreign workers, both in the low-skilled as well as the high-skilled/highly paid tech fields, in order to further drive wages down. We do not need more foreign workers. Wages have been stagnant for decades.
This woman is a disgrace and has completely sold out her constituents.