Tea Party and Sarah Palin Poised for Another Upset: In Texas
The Tea Party and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin look poised to help bring off what is being perceived upset victory, this time in Texas:
Ted Cruz is on the cusp of a win in the Texas Republican Senate runoff that would shatter conventional campaign wisdom and elevate him as one of the brightest stars of the tea party generation.
Even some of his aides concede privately they never thought it could happen.
Yet in the closing days of this dead-of-summer contest in a sprawling superstate, Cruz’s flinty campaign had all the trappings of a celebration, with the 41-year-old constitutional lawyer being feted by the country’s most prominent conservatives, including Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Sens. Jim DeMint and Rand Paul.
“We’re on the 2-yard line. We have marched the entire length of the field. We started out up in the hot dog stands,” Cruz joked Friday evening in a suburban park where hundreds flocked to see Palin. “But we are facing a battle to push it those final two yards. Do the grass roots matter? This race is the test for that proposition.”
Despite being outspent more than 3-to-1, having never run for office and being tasked with penetrating the Lone Star State’s 20 media markets with virtually zero name recognition, Cruz is well positioned to upset Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst Tuesday. It’s a scenario that would send shockwaves through the political elite and embolden the thousands of conservatives from across the country who have descended here to help push him over the finish line.
It’s one thing for a tea party candidate to swipe away an individual House seat or dominate a party convention in a small state, but a statewide win in supersize Texas would be a new high-water mark.
“Dewhurst had every advantage you can have. What Cruz has done to this point was once unthinkable and is now remarkable. He will be an overnight star if he wins, which he is favored to do right now,” said Austin-based GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak, a Cruz supporter and former press secretary to retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
The two most recent public polls have shown Cruz ahead. And a Dewhurst ally with knowledge of an internal survey separate from the campaigns told POLITICO his preferred candidate was trailing by high single digits heading into the weekend.
This underscores two things:
1. The continued clout of Palin among a segment of the GOP.
2. The small amount of wiggle room presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has to actually move himself a bit further to the center in the general election. That is, if he actually wanted to do so.
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It is no surprise that things like this happen. Democrats helped Sharon Angle win her primary as they knew she was the easiest to defeat in Nevada. McCaskill is running ads in Missouri that indicates Todd Akin is a preferable candidate and a Democrat PAC is beginning to run ads attacking the republican candidates they do not want to run against, leaving Akin alone.
(AP,Washington, July30th)
So, why not Texas. Spend some money supporting the far right Tea Party candidate that has the least chance of defeating the democrat. And that candidate being tied to Palin is also a plus for the democrats during the general election. This also accomplishes a second goal. Make it look as though Palin can be a power broker in future primaries , find the candidates she is supporting like this, put money behind her candidates and then you are running against the weaker candidate during the gneral election.
Seems like fair politics in a government that allows for selection of party candidates through the primary procedure.
And one could probably find the right manipulating the lefts candidates when they find acceptible races to concentrate on.
Looking at the backgrounds of Dewhurst and Cruz, there is little comparison in quality and quantity of political and legal expertise. Cruz outshines his opponent in every way, at one time even law clerking for William Rehnquist, then-Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
I think the Dems would prefer the regular Texas good ol’ boy Dewhurst; that type they know how to “deal” with. It’s probably a foregone conclusion that they will have to deal with one or the other of these guys.
RP, that strategy won’t work in Texas. There is no Democratic candidate for statewide office that can beat any Republican candidate. I hope I’m wrong.
Cruz is a great candidate by any standards. One he is a great lawyer, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, editor of the Harvard Law Review, first Hispanic ever to clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States, authored more than 80 briefs before the United States Supreme Court and presented 43 oral arguments, including nine before the United States Supreme Court. His father fled Cuba and came to Austin where he worked his way thru the University of Texas washing dishes. He strongly appeals to the Hispanic voters in Texas, which do not have the party loyalty that people from elsewhere seem to expect. He’s a great candidate and a amazing public speaker. His politics may not be yours but reality check, he would be a player Tea Party or not.