Tag Archives: Primary

Latest Rasmussen poll shows Crist has 14-point lead over Marco Rubio

Story here at Rasmussen Reports.

Excerpt:

The contest for the 2010 Republican Senate nomination in Florida is a little closer this month, but Governor Charlie Crist still holds a 14-point lead over former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters in the state finds Crist outdistancing Rubio 49% to 35%. Four percent (4%) like some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.

In mid-August, Crist was beating Rubio by 22 points among GOP Primary voters – 53% to 31%. That was Rasmussen Reports’ first poll of next year’s Republican Primary race.

The fact that Crist has fallen below 50% in a primary against a lesser known opponent suggests potential vulnerability.

Both men are vying to be the Republican nominee in next year’s race to fill the seat vacated by retiring GOP Senator Mel Martinez. In August, Crist as governor named his chief of staff, George LeMiuex, to serve the remainder of Martinez’s term, but LeMieux is not running for a full term next year.

This is more good news, especially after that RINO Dede Scozzafava quit the NY-23 Congressional race. Doug Hoffman is now tied with the Democrat, but should get the majority of Scozzafava’s votes when she drops out of the race. The election is set for Tuesday. My concern at this point is that the Republican establishment waited too long to endorse the right candidate and now we may have trouble getting out the vote.

Arlen Specter’s challenger Pat Toomey panned by RINOs in the NRSC

I was just browsing over at the Maritime Sentry, and there was this interesting post about Arlen Specter’s primary challenger, Pat Toomey. Specter has been a de facto Democrat for a long time now, but for some reason the NRSC has continuously endorsed him in the primary. So what happens now? They can’t endorse Specter, he’s a Democrat. But they won’t endorse Pat Toomey.

Here is what happened with the Maritime Sentry phoned the NRSC about this:

I was shocked when I read at Hot Air today that the NRSC may not support Pat Toomey and may instead back another RINO candidate. I immediately called them and in very polite terms said I was disappointed and that I hoped they would change their mind and support Toomey; otherwise I would not support them in any way.

The guy who answered was extremely rude and hung up on me. I called back and got through to a woman this time. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she refused. She asked what my problem was. I went through the whole ordeal with her and again repeated my request to speak to a supervisor. She told me no, that she would handle it, and that my concerns were unjustified because the NRSC was supporting Toomey.

I read the quotes from Senators Hatch and Cornyn in the Hot Air article that stated otherwise. She then put me on hold, came back on, and said they have not decided who they will support, but that they needed to go with someone who could actually win.

I said something to the effect of ‘fine, if you go with a RINO I will not support the NRSC in any way…..’. She addressed me like a parent does a little child and promptly let me go. That is the legist of the call. I was raised to say sir and mam so I assure you I was polite.

Here’s a little more about it from post from NRO’s The Corner: (H/T Hot Air)

“I don’t think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator there,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Asked if the NRSC would back Toomey, Hatch said, “I don’t think so” and that the party should look for “someone who can win there.”…

Hatch later equivocated and said, “I’m not saying he can’t win – nobody gave me a chance when I ran.”…

On Wednesday, Cornyn said he didn’t know if Toomey would be the “only candidate” or the “strongest candidate” in the GOP primary.

“It’s too early to endorse,” Cornyn said.

Pat Toomey’s site is here. We can’t win the country back unless we stop being Democrat-lite and start articulating conservative principles and policies. And I do include socially conservative principles and policies as well as fiscally conservative ones.

UPDATE: Here’s an MP3 podcast featuring Pat Toomey on the Hugh Hewitt show.