Thread: Lamar Alexander’s secret weapons

By Judson Phillips
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
The Washington Times

Liberal Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is in serious trouble. Polling shows his support is declining while challenger Joe Carr’s support is taking off like a Saturn 5 rocket.

Conservatives across America have picked up this fight to get rid of the most liberal Republican senator who is running for re-election. Tea Party groups and major conservative celebrities have come out and endorsed Mr. Carr. Laura Ingraham, nationally syndicated radio host, did an event in Nashville for Mr. Carr on Tuesday.

Mr. Alexander has two secret weapons that may help him hold on to power. The first is George Flinn. Flinn is a Memphis doctor and self admitted friend of Lamar Alexander. Many Tennesseans believe that Dr. Flinn simply got into the race to split the conservative vote.

Dr. Flinn is a two-time loser running for Congress. In 2010, he spent over $2 million of his own money to try and get elected to Congress.

He failed.

A recent poll conducted on behalf of Tea Party Nation showed Mr. Carr trailing Mr. Alexander by 6 points. He had closed the gap from 24 points two months ago. Amazingly enough, Dr. Flinn is polling at 6 percent. Given Mr. Alexander’s almost universal name recognition in Tennessee, it is a safe bet that those who are voting for Dr. Flinn would not be voting Alexander.

But Mr. Alexander has another secret weapon at his disposal.

Democrats.

Tennessee has open primaries. Twenty years ago, Tennessee was a purple state. No longer. It is deep red.

Things are so bad for the Democrats that in 2012, the Party denounced its own nominee who was challenging Republican Bob Corker.

The Democrat nominee for Senate has a better chance of winning the lottery than he does for winning the Senate seat.

With an open primary, Democrats can freely cross over and vote in the Republican primary. With no serious competition in the Democrat primary, many probably will.

The problem is not so much that Democrats can and will cross over to vote in Republican primaries. The real problem is that so much of the Republican Establishment has no problem with this.

Democrats are choosing Republican nominees and the party leadership has no problem with this. In Mississippi, Thad Cochran and the Haley Barbour political machine shamelessly reached out and got Democrats to cross over and vote for Cochran.

There is a simple solution to this problem.

Instead of relying on primaries, Republicans could simply pick their candidates with a convention of Republican political activists.

Republicans are the ones who should pick their nominees, not Democrats. Democrats by the same token should pick their nominees as well. It is the height of insanity that the primary system, as it currently exists in Tennessee, Mississippi and other states allows cross over voting.

If the Republican leadership were serious about stopping cross over voting, they would endorse conventions over primaries. Conservatives accuse the establishment of being willing to see liberal Democrats win before a conservative wins.

They are right.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, it is coming down to the wire. Tennessee is the last big Tea Party challenge to the establishment in 2014. The day before the election in Virginia, no one believed that Dave Brat could beat Eric Cantor, but he did.

On Aug. 7, the voters of Tennessee will speak.

Don’t be surprised to see Joe Carr giving a victory speech that evening.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...=all#pagebreak

Using a vote splitter and Democrats to try to survive a real conservative in the primary... why am I not surprised!

W

bttt

Why Lamar Alexander is in Trouble

by Dan Riehl 31 Jul 2014

Sarah Palin endorses Joe Carr over Lamar Alexander

Video at the page link:

Chattanooga News

Sarah Palin is endorsing Joe Carr in the Republican primary. Carr is challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander. On her Facebook page, Palin says Carr is the new voice...




Along with popular conservative radio hosts like Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham coming out against him, the fundamental reasons why Senator Lamar Alexander may lose to Joe Carr in the upcoming primary are detailed in this Weekly Standard item.

Not only is his being labeled a so called RINO or squish by Conservatives appropriate, he's now on the wrong side of today's hot button issue - immigration reform.

If such a sentiment exists, some numbers might help explain it. Alexander’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 76 out of 100, with a 60 rating for the 2013 legislative year. Heritage Action’s scorecard gives Alexander a dismal 49 percent. But for Carr, Ingraham, and the rest of the “Beat Lamar” crowd, Alexander’s worst betrayal is on immigration. In June 2013, he was one of 14 Republicans in the Senate to vote for the comprehensive immigration reform bill drafted by the bipartisan “Gang of 8.” Alexander notes he cosponsored an amendment with fellow Tennessee Republican Bob Corker to beef up border security as part of the package. Border hawks like Jeff Sessions of Alabama argued the bill’s enforcement measures were toothless, a stalking horse for amnesty for illegal immigrants inside the country.

The Weekly Standard can call him a conservative and some fine long-time right-leaning Republicans can endorse him but that paragraph above may yet prove to be his undoing.

Suddenly, the politics of immigration reform looked to be swinging in the direction of the enforcement hawks and economic populists. Just days after Cantor’s defeat, one Capitol Hill Republican aide told me Carr was the “next Dave Brat.” The growing crisis at the southern border, with tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America streaming into Texas from Mexico, further pushed illegal immigration into the forefront. A July 16 Gallup poll found a plurality of Americans thought the issue of immigration and illegal aliens was the most important problem facing the country, followed closely by dissatisfaction with elected officials. On July 22, Georgia Republican primary voters picked newcomer David Perdue over longtime congressman and Chamber-endorsed Jack Kingston in that state’s Senate runoff. Perdue had closed the gap against Kingston in part by emphasizing his opponent’s association with the pro-“amnesty” Chamber. It’s a trend, some say, working in Joe Carr’s favor.

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2...-is-in-Trouble

First article of this thread was posted on the Homepage earlier:
http://www.alipac.us/lamar-alexander...-weapons-3272/