Friday, April 15, 2011

DeMint sets his sights on Ohio

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is chairman of the Senate Conservatives Fund. His PAC was enormously successful last cycle in propelling 5 genuine conservatives to victory in the US Senate.

Most noteable of them, in my opinion, is Marco Rubio from Florida. In the previous cycle, Florida's Senate race was for an open seat. The Republican establishment quickly threw its support behind FL Governor Charlie Crist. But early in the contest, SCF endorsed and supported Rubio, who was the former Speaker of the Florida House.

Early on, Crist crushed Rubio in the primary polls. But DeMint's endorsement brought attention and more importantly, donations to Rubio from around the country (including from yours truly). We all know the end result. Rubio ended up beating Crist in fundraising and eventually beating him for the GOP nomination and general election as well.

I, and all of SCF's donors and members, received an exciting email today. DeMint is targeting Sherrod Brown. He's bringing nationwide attention to this swing state with the most liberal Senator.
You may have heard of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the most liberal Senator. He recently made national headlines when he compared those of us who oppose unchecked union power to Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.


Now, Sherrod Brown is attacking those of us who oppose raising the debt limit without passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment. He said we "want to govern by ideology."

Our nation's debt is over $14 trillion and skyrocketing, but Sherrod Brown believes it's extreme to demand Congress balance its budget. What he fails to recognize is that stopping the debt is not a matter of ideology, it's a matter of national survival.
In my opinion, Josh Mandel is almost certain to be the GOP nominee, for several reasons.
  • It appears that he will be the first into the race. This will give him momentum.
  • Between Mandel and possible primary opponent Ken Blackwell, the Ohio Republican Party would almost certainly endorse Mandel. Blackwell is popular with Ohio's conservative base, but not the establishment. The ORP endorsement in a primary is a huge advantage.
  • Other popular GOPers that have been mentioned, like Jim Jordan, now appear not to be entering the race.
  • With his youth, energy and military service going for him, he has a level of excitement going for him now, that other potential candidates, like Mary Taylor or Kevin Coughlin, just can't match

Josh is conservative enough to earn SCF's full endorsement. With the news yesterday that he has hired the same fundraiser that DeMint uses, and this news update from DeMint's PAC coming just a day later, I'm beginning to suspect that DeMint has already reached out to Josh, or vice versa.
I'm confident that a courageous, constitutional conservative can defeat Sherrod Brown, and I'm confident we will have one to support in this race. But we need to start banking resources now to defeat him.

Ohio is a swing state so winning won't be easy or cheap. Voters in the Buckeye State need to know what Sherrod Brown has been doing in Washington. They need to know that he routinely votes for more government at the expense of their jobs and their freedoms.

That's why I'm writing to you today. We want to raise $500,000 to implement a program designed to educate Ohio voters about Sherrod Brown's reckless spending. Independent voters especially need to know how he's fighting against them at every turn.
We will need a lot of resources to take down Sherrod Brown. We already know that Josh is a terrific fundraiser and a tireless worker. If we also have nationwide conservatives pouring money into the race, I really like our chances of ridding ourselves of the Senate's most liberal member.

Bytor on Twitter

8 comments:

  1. I also like our chances to rid ourselves of Brown. Unless things change rather substantially on the national level (and that seems unlikely with inflation now starting to gain serious momentum)I believe Obama will probably NOT carry Ohio. I believe the driving force for this election will not only be tea party members but also many independents eager to address the big con job they got in 2008. This should create a significant headwind for democrats all down the ticket including the Senate race.

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  2. "the Ohio Republican Party would almost certainly endorse Mandel."

    Don't be so sure of that, the swell did not even give us Mandel Lawn signs.

    OHIO JOE

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  3. "Don't be so sure of that, the swell did not even give us Mandel Lawn signs."

    Yeah one of the biggest factors holding back a republican victory in Ohio is the almost useless Ohio Republican Party -- we should start by getting rid of the DeWine crowd. The Ohio GOP had essentially nothing to do with the great victories we enjoyed this last November!

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  4. (DISCLAIMER: I understand the fundraiser letter you have posted is not of your own writing, so my beef in the following is not with Bytor, though I think not recognizing the tactic or ignoring is regrettable on this blog's part).

    Reference to a regrettable comment that Senator Brown himself and publicly apologized for when it was taken out of context (he didn't refer to anyone as Nazis, he brought up a factual incident including Nazis) is okay.

    But you're all okay with Mandel's racial tactics used against Kevin Boyce during the campaign? The links and inferences made to a "radical mosque?"

    Bringing up factual events in no way linked to Republicans (read the transcript, he doesn't call anyone a Nazi) vs. inuendo flaming racial tensions. Riiiiiight...

    I'll ignore an out-of-state PAC and Senator sticking their nose in an Ohio race. Because it's only terrible when out-of-state PACs and Senators do that for Democrats or progressive ideas like collective bargaining.

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  5. Isn't DeMint the guy who brought you guys Sharon Angle?

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  6. Jung Dem: "Reference to a regrettable comment that Senator Brown himself and publicly apologized for when it was taken out of context (he didn't refer to anyone as Nazis, he brought up a factual incident including Nazis) is okay."

    So amazing that when a democrat engages in demagoguery that quote is ALWAYS played back "out of context".

    Of course when asked, "well, what was the context then?" -- you get a deafening silence.

    In fact, that there is no proper context for calling, or implying, that the actions of American republicans or conservatives have anything to to with mass murdering Nazis. None.

    It was a 100% inappropriate remark -- but calling conservatives Nazis is such common practice on the left that they often can't control themselves. Slips out don't you see?

    The republicans were trying to fix up the mess left by Nancy Pelosi -- she had an overwhelming majority in the House yet failed to even put up or pass a budget for the United States. If you ever doubted the incompetence of democrats....

    And if you have any doubt about which side is routinely engaged in vial, hate-filled language in this country you need merely watch video after video of union thugs caught on tape all across this country these last few months.

    Like the one this weekend of two middle aged union men yelling the f-word and to w-word at a 13 year old school girl trying to present her views at a rally in Madison.

    But only democratic children deserve respect. NO union or democrat apology appeared. Par for the course.

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  7. JD: for the record, Mandel's ad was inappropriate and unnecessary. I don't condone it. I hope he learned a lesson from it.

    Modern: yes, DeMint backed questionable candidates, like Angle and even worse, O'Donnell. *shudder*

    But he also backed some great ones like Rubio, Johnson, Paul and Toomey.

    Though his politics are certainly different than yours, I would hope that you'd agree that Mandel is a serious and quality candidate, and not one of the flaky variety like Angle.

    My point was NOT that DeMint always backs the best candidate. But he has the most successful PAC of any sitting legislator. He's already indicating that he will bring national conservative attention to the Ohio race. This will attract a lot of extra money to the GOP candidate (should that candidate be SCF endorsed, which I believe Mandel would be.)

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  8. Ohio Joe: Well, the ORP almost certainly won't back Blackwell in the primary. And between Mandel and Coughlin, I still see them going with Mandel.

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