• ALIPAC Endorsed Congressman Mo Brooks is outspent yet Wins Race With 60% of Vote


    U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks handed challenger Parker Griffith a decisive defeat Tuesday night, capturing almost 60 percent of the Republican primary vote in the 5th Congressional District.

    Brooks now faces Democrat Charlie Holley in the November general election. Holley called a press conference for today at which he promised to "issue a challenge to the Republican primary winner," presumably to debate.

    In a rematch of their 2010 fight for the seat held by Griffith for one term, Brooks won all six counties in the newly re-drawn district. He won in the Muscle Shoals area where Griffith won two years ago, and he won overwhelmingly in the two men's home county of Madison.

    Virtually complete but unofficial returns showed Brooks taking Jackson County by 1,885 votes to 1,212; Limestone by 9,379 to 3,924; Lauderdale by 4,289 to 3,338; Madison by 37,856 to 12,382; and Morgan County by 10,691 to 5,525.

    Griffith conceded shortly after 9 p.m., saying he had funded his own campaign to give voters in the district a choice. "That's one of the reasons I feel good," Griffith said. "I don't feel good about losing."

    Brooks claimed victory saying he was "out-spent 3-1, all of it on attack ads, and that's hard to deal with...."

    Brooks said his campaign focused on his record, and he was "trusting the voters of Madison County to understand the difference between truth and fiction."

    Embracing his high profile as a freshman House conservative, Brooks said he will campaign for Republicans in other states this year as the party tries to take back the White House and the Senate. "It's not about any individual me, it's about a collective us...," Brooks said. "The mission has just begun."

    In his concession remarks, Griffith congratulated Brooks, but urged him to publicly apologize for "saying things that reflect poorly on Alabama ... just to throw some red meat to his base."

    Referring to Brooks' remarks about illegal immigration, in which Brooks said he favored "anything short of shooting them... anything that is lawful" to get undocumented workers out of the state, Griffith said that "mean-spirited comment" would be used against the state in future BRAC competitions.

    Griffith started the race behind, qualifying on the last day to enter the race and leaving himself only 60 days to campaign. The primary was moved up from June by the Legislature last year in a successful move to give Alabama more influence in the Republican presidential selection process.

    Griffith's camp said the short campaign season was why he never raised much in the way of campaign contributions. Instead, the independently wealthy Griffith financed the campaign himself with a series of loans and cash contributions totaling $568,000 at the last accounting.

    But Griffith clearly never overcame the problem that plagued him from the start. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 2008 and switched parties to become a Republican. That gave him credibility problems with both parties.

    Asked if North Alabama voters would see his name on another ballot in the future, Griffith joked, "If I can find one unopposed."
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Parker Griffith calls Mo Brooks to concede, urges Brooks to apologize for immigrant r started by working4change View original post