So by now you’ve probably heard about Dr. Rand Paul; both Kentucky and Ron Paul’s favorite son (don’t tell Ronald or Robert).  In August of 2009, the little-known Ophthalmologist from Bowling Green announced his campaign for Jim Bunning’s vacated US Senate seat – and yesterday the Tea Party darling defeated the epitome of an ‘Establishment’ candidate in Kentucky’s Secretary of State Trey Grayson by 23.4%;  58.8% to 35.4% (Full Election Results here).

When Paul announced his candidacy in August, Greyson hadn’t even stepped in the race, yet was still more than double digits ahead of Paul due to his high name-ID as a Statewide-Elected Official.  Yet Paul had two things that would help demolish Mitch McConnell’s chosen son and propel him to the Kentucky Randslide of 2010:  Principles and Papa.

As founder and chairman of the anti-tax organization Kentucky Taxpayers United (KTU) since 1994, Rand was clearly a limited government conservative – something his opponent could only talk about after repeatedly asking for budget increases for his Department as Secretary of State.

And as the son of Tea Party favorite Ron Paul – the inventor of the ‘moneybomb’ – Rand had no problem raising money from all over the country – Trey Grayson even ran a commercial saying as much as 75% of his donations were from outside the state.

It also didn’t help that Trey Grayson was a Clinton Democrat in 1992, and was even a Delegate for him in the Presidential Election that year.  And in 1994, when the Democratic Party was in decline, guess what?  Time to ‘Specter’ on over to the winning side (and yes, I want to verbalise the word Specter, so please feel free to use that as much as you want).

Americans, whether they consider themselves ‘Tea Partiers’ or not, are tired of politicians who will do whatever it takes to get elected.   We saw it in Pennsylvania, and we’ll see it again and again going forward.  Strong, principled men and women who are fervently against expanding government will win big in 2010.  This is only the beginning.

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With just over a month to go Republican primary election former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin released an endorsement of former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.  Of course it was almost a year ago when Palin resigned her position as Governor of Alaska and began her nationwide blitz.  She has since become a bestselling author with her book Going Rouge and was even the keynote speaker at the national Tea Party Convention a few months ago.  Palin seemed to be building up some serious credibility amongst the conservative grassroots over the past few months.

She received some blow back in February when she endorsed her former running-mate John McCain for re-election in favor of his primary challenger JD Hayworth.  Of course most conservative activists gave Palin a pass on this endorsement because McCain was the person responsible for making her endorsement relevant on a national scale.  However, aside from McCain, Palin has made some endorsements that pass the conservative test such as Rand Paul and Doug Hoffman.

The real shock came when the former governor endorsed McCain’s darling running for Senate in California, Carly Fiorina.  Apparently Sarah Palin forgot about Carly’s embarrassing gaffes where she insulted both McCain and Palin, and subsequently got her fired from the McCain campaign:

One would think that after the McCain cronies attempted to hang Palin out to dry and spread rumors of her “diva” attitude following the campaign that she would have had it.  However, she again returned to the one who punched her political meal ticket in 2008 and endorsed his hand-picked candidate in California yesterday.

But something happened on the road to Rome, The Politico has noticed Palin’s decision yesterday is vastly unpopular amongst her very own supporters.   On her own Facebook page thousands of comments of disapproval have poured in expressing outrage and urging her to reconsider her endorsement of Fiorina.  It seems the very grassroots conservatives Palin has been appealing to the last year are now disgusted with her lack of follow through by not endorsing the true conservative in the race Chuck DeVore.

Here are a few excerpts of comments left on Palin’s post touting her endorsement:

“I am really disappointed that you are endorsing a progressive instead of the only constitutional conservative running in the senate race is Chuck DeVore.”

“I hope Palin will reconsider and endorse DeVore. He is the best candidate.”
“I am sorry. I love Sarah and I understand her support of the RINO John McCain. However, Carly Fiorina is also a RINO in how she has conducted herself to date. Sure she has done some things right, like her NRA membership, however, I support a real Tea Party Supported and endorsed CONSERVATIVE, Mr. DeVore.”

“Wrong, wrong, and wrong — Chuck DeVore is THE conservative. You’re losing me, Sarah …”

“Sarah- I have looked at all the other comments and the majority are clearly AGAINST your endorsement of Fiorina. This was a VERY BAD decision on your part. You have lost all credibility with me and thousands of others in the tea party movement. If I ever see you on Hannity or any FOX news program I will automatically shut you off now. Just like Obama your endorsements are meaningless. YOU ARE SUCH A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!”

To read the rest of the outrage click here: http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/lets-shake-it-up-in-california-updated/386510153434

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This just dropped in my In box from Tom Harman for Attorney General Campaign. If viewed widely this video should destroy any chance Cooley has at winning the Republican nomination for Attorney General.

From Tom Harman for Attorney General:

Sacramento, CA – In a new video posted on Vimeo this week by USC law professor Jody Armour, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley spends much of a 63-minute interview attacking California’s Three-Strikes law, as well as “Jessica’s Law.” The video of an interview at the Univeristy of Southern California’s Unruh Institute of Politics on October 23, 2009 captures Cooley railing against Jessica’s law, blaming on “Republican ideologues.” He then advises the audience if they want to pass a law in California to “name it after a female.”

The event was titled: Crime, Punishment & Rehabilitation: The Politics & Policy of California’s Prisons and featured Cooley, former Assemblyman Pat Nolan and Armour.

“Earlier this week a Cooley spokesperson tried to tell a leading news agency that he never took a position on Jessica’s Law. Well this certainly sounds like a clear position to me,” noted Harman campaign strategist Tim Rosales.

Steve Cooley has continually shown contempt for Republican voters and tough-on-crime laws like Jessica’s Law and Three Strikes. As this video makes abundantly clear, “his liberal positions on the issues put him far out of the mainstream, not only of Republican Primary voters, but of the 70% majority of all Californians who voted for Jessica’s Law,” said Rosales. Jessica’s Law protects Californians from violent sexual predators.

“Californians have a better choice for Attorney General,” concluded Rosales. Tom Harman brings over 40 years of legal experience to the job, supports Three Strikes and Jessica’s Law and is the author of legislation to streamline the death penalty.” In February, 2010 Harman was named Crime Victim United’s “Legislator of the Year.”

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Patrick Ruffini, noted and syndicated conservative blogger, had a quite entertaining tweet yesterday, it read:

“Carly Fiorina’s Facebook page is still defaulting to show “fan” posts. Not the best move, in her case. http://bit.ly/bvSOsG”

Apparently Carly doesn’t have as many “fans” as she would like.  On the page, if you subtract Carly’s own posts, the majority of the comments on her wall are calling her a RINO and are people disgusted with her.  It seems everyone is ready to put the failed presidential candidate, John McCain, and his cronies out to pasture and move forward with a real brand of conservatism.  Let’s see how long her wall on facebook is “public”….her overpaid media consultants are probably flipping coins on deciding whether to make her page private or not…either way, they will be hit.  In the spirit of baseball season, all I can say is.: “SWING and a miss Carly.”  Lets just hope she continues to vote after she’s defeated.  That is a tough task for her.

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For the past week I have been trying to think of a reasonable defense for a candidate for any office to refuse to appear in a debate or at least a campaign forum.  If you’ve frequented the Flash Report (www.flashreport.org) you may have read that by a 10-1 margin members of the California Republican Party want to see a debate for key statewide races at the convention next month.  It seems however, that two of the major candidates are responsible for holding these debates up.

The two candidates who are bending over backwards to avoid a debate and actively trying to shut down an effort to organize a debate?  Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.  Apparently the dynamic duo who have been MIA at the polls until recently apparently have no eager desire to join in another cherished part of the American democracy…discussing and comparing ideas with your opponents!

Steve Poizner responded to the “debate or not debate” question by offering t surrender his slated speaking appearance at the CRP Convention to make room for a debate with Whitman.  To up the ante a little more the Poizner Campaign sent out an email today uging voters to sign a petition to have a debate at the CRP Convention.   You can find the petition here:

http://stevepoizner.com/debate-petition/?tr=y&auid=5959384

From the looks of it Whitman has not offered much of an explanation other than she doesn’t want to debate.

Similarly the other diva making their political debut, Carly Fiorina is dancing around the same issue.  Fiorina however, is a multi-talented debate dodger.  Everyone’s favorite failed CEO is not only dodging the CRP debate, she is now refusing to attend a debate that was being organized by Chapman University.  Clearly the organizers of the Orange County debate aren’t too please with Ms. Fiorina either, this scuffle was chronicled in today’s OC Register Total Buzz Blog:

http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2010/02/18/is-fiorina-ducking-o-c-debate/30437/

If Whitman and Fiorina are serious about representing California they should not treat interest voters as subjects.  The spirit of representative democracy finds its soul in an open disscussion of ideas by those who hold and seek power.  Carly and Meg should repect this tradition. Their refusal to debate sadly is not surprising, but what should we expect from candidates who have just recently figured out how to vote, only to ask for ours a few years later?

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This is fresh from a caucus meeting this afternoon – and about two hours old.

Read here for more

Martin Garrick is in his first day as leader and he takes a faceplant right out of the gate. No wonder the Tea Party out polls the Republican Party…

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Liz Cheney’s group, Keep America Safe, has already come out with a ad attacking Obama’s State of the Union Address.  Politico is reporting that the ad will be running on Fox News and MSNBC.

Watch the ad below:

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For an underdog candidate against two big dogs in Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell, the man sure has class.  We need a man like him to take out Barbara Boxer.  Here is the full script of his letter:

———————-

A message from Assemblyman DeVore:

I was visiting with about 120 members of the Napa Valley Federation of Republican Women today. It was my 222nd campaign appearance since declaring for the U.S. Senate 13 months ago.

During the Q&A, one lady asked me what we could do to stop Obamacare. She was a retired nurse and her husband was an oral surgeon – she knew a thing or two about healthcare and was extremely concerned about what the plan backed by Boxer, Reid and Pelosi would do to the world’s best healthcare system.

I recounted how our campaign has generated more than 80,000 faxes to Capitol Hill against Obamacare and against Boxer’s Cap-and-Trade energy tax but that the single most important thing we could do now to stop the Obama agenda cold was to elect Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. I then said that is why our campaign is going to turn our volunteer operation over to Scott Brown between now and the election next Tuesday. The crowd went wild with applause.

You can help make this happen. Give us up to three email referrals today. Tomorrow, we will send an email to tens of thousands of supporters giving them specific instructions on how they can support Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

Stopping Obamacare is up to you. First, we win Massachusetts. Then, we take back the U.S. Senate and restore fiscal sanity and Constitutional governance to America. Please take the first step by recommending a friend or two that we may help connect to the Scott Brown effort tomorrow.

Allan…

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Surprisingly great news is coming from MA.  Here are main details from PPP (D).

“Buoyed by a huge advantage with independents and relative disinterest from Democratic voters in the state, Republican Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 48-47.”

“As was the case in the Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia last year, it looks like the electorate in Massachusetts will be considerably more conservative than the one that showed up in 2008.”

“Brown has eye popping numbers with independents, sporting a 70/16 favorability rating with them and holding a 63-31 lead in the horse race with Coakley.”

“In a trend that’s going to cause Democrats trouble all year, voters disgusted with both parties are planning to vote for the one out of power.”

To read the entire post from PPP go here.

To help Scott Brown out go here.

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