#NCSEN: Burr, NRSC hosting Tillis fundraiser in DC
The worst-kept secret in American politics has finally become public: The DC GOP mafia is signing up with Theam Tillis.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee — the campaign arm of Senate Republicans — is hosting a fundraiser at its DC headquarters for Thom Tillis. It seems like just yesterday that a NRSC rep told me — with a straight face — that his organization was staying neutral in the North Carolina GOP primary for US Senate. (Update: That same NRSC rep contacted me after reading this post. He says that ANY Republican running for office can reserve space in the NRSC building for a fundraiser. This source says the fact the fundraiser is being held in the NRSC building should not lead anyone to believe the NRSC is endorsing Tillis.)
Our state’s senior senator — Richard Burr — is co-hosting the event along with fellow senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, and John Thune of South Dakota.
The drive-by media has been noticing an increased level of involvement in GOP primaries by the NRSC and RNC:
[…] The NRSC has been taking a much more active role in GOP primaries this year after a number of conservative challengers won Senate primaries in 2012 before costing the party seats with unforced errors in the general election. The organization has also been quietly backing Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) in their contested Senate primaries.[…]
Earlier this month, Kentucky senator Rand Paul and FreedomWorks hosted a DC area fundraiser for Tillis opponent Greg Brannon.
#DefundTheGOP & #DefundtheNRSC
Conservatives are winning and these guys are desperate.
#BeltwayBarnacles trying to stay relevant.
All of the Republican committees inside the Washington beltway have lost touch with the Republican base. Conservatives should never ever consider giving them a nickel in contributions. Contribute instead to conservative candidates you can trust or conservative PAC’s you can trust like Senate Conservatives Fund, Freedom Works, and Club for Growth. The DC based Republican committees are all about keeping the wimpy GOP establishment in power, and want to defeat conservatives. Mitch McConnell, laid it out when he recently vowed to the New York Times to ”crush them [conservatives] everywhere”.
The NRSC puts being a bootlicker to the establishment ahead of being able to win against the Democrats. In Kentucky, the NRSC is backing Mitch McConnell in the primary even though McConnell is only tied with the Democrat in the recent Rasmussen poll, while conservative Matt Bevin, backed by the Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth is 6 points ahead of the Democrat. Similarly, in North Carolina, the polls show Greg Brannon, Ted Alexander, and Heather Grant all to be stronger candidates against Hagan than Tilli$. The NRSC backs Tilli$ only because Tilli$ will brownnose the DC beltway establishment.
As to winning races, the establishment’s Karl Rove has lost 10 of the 12 US Senate races he has been involved in. NRSC has had some real duds. Their former GOP primary candidate against Rand Paul is now working for a liberal Super PAC trying to elect Democrats. Their former GOP primary candidate against Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist is now running as a Democrat for Florida governor. In the 2010 primary in Colorado, NRSC backed Jane Norton who had been an AARP lobbyist in the Hillarycare era against conservative Ken Buck and ran such a severe scorched earth negative primary campaign that they narrowly cost Buck victory in the general election.
NRSC is totally worhless and I agree with the post above – defund them! We do not need these establishment busybodies meddling in our primaries. North Carolinians should decide who our Senator will be, not Karl Rove or Mitch McConnell. And our state party leadership should have told them back in the beginning to keep their stinking noses out of our primary.
As to Tricky Dick Burr, he seems to want to continually illustrate why he needs to be dumped in 2016. Over the past year or so he has totally gone native in Washington. He now completely represents DC beltway establishment interests, not North Carolina Republican interests. Very likely, he will cash out and take a high paid lobbyist job on K Street in 2016, but if not he needs to be primaried and taken out. Three congressional district party organizations have rebuked Burr for his sellouts on major policy issues. He needs to go.
(Update: That same NRSC rep contacted … says the fact the fundraiser is being held in the NRSC building should not lead anyone to believe the NRSC is endorsing Tillis.)
Did he say anything about the joint fundraising PAC effort between the NRSC & Tillis, the “Tillis Victory Fund,” launched last July?
Sneaky. They are clearly supporting him, but stop short of a formal endorsement. Do they think conservatives do not know what these establishment hacks are up to?
Why isn’t Sarah Palin and more conservative organizations endorsing Greg Brannon?
Freedomworks and Senators Paul and Lee already have endorsed Brannon. Palin has endorsed conservatives so far in three states – Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Nebraska. In past election cycles, she has done her endorsements incrementally in order to increase their iimpact, and I suspect she will do so this year as well. I think we will see both North and South Carolina in the mix before she is finished. I hope we see Matt Bevin in Kentucky, too, but I am less certain she will go again McConnell. The Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund also do the same. The Club does them one or two at a time, and they just endorsed in the Senate race in Alaska.
Here is yet another example of the despicable beltway basturds NRSC meddling in a state’s Senate primary:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/gayle2dearg/2014/03/18/beltway-gop-establishment-pushing-pro-abortion-senate-candidate-oregon/
Conservatives should NEVER NEVER NEVER contribute to these anti-conservative establishment hacks.
Interesting that @TeamMarkHarris is RT’ing a tweet from the @NRSC bragging about the difference they’re making in the US SEN Primaries, including here in #NC.
Very telling.