Ron Paul, Kurt Bills, Pete Hegseth, Turf Wars, All Eyes On The Prize
A personal wish for me to hear the following on election night 2012: Its official Al Franken will be the senior Senator from Minnesota…….
Note: This post is intended to share my opinions on defeating Amy Klobuchar and NOT in any way intended to “attack” Ron Paul, his supporters, Kurt Bills etc. I want to see Amy Kloubchar be a 1 term US Senator. Period. I’d like to make sure we endorse the best candidate who can defeat her, not pick one for other reasons. I believe Pete Hegseth IS the right guy for this job.
I’m not seeing a whole lot about this so I just want to remind everyone that Ron Paul endorsed US Senate candidate Kurt Bills and this race is getting near the home stretch. Oddly enough, it is also only 1 month old.
LAKE JACKSON, Texas – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul endorsed today Minnesota State Rep. Kurt Bills, candidate for U.S. Senate. Rep. Bills, an advanced economics professor who eschews the label of career politician, is a family man, wrestling coach, involved community member, and man of integrity.
“Rep. Kurt Bills is the precisely the kind of Republican who can defeat incumbent Senator Amy Klobuchar. He appeals to both conservatives and independents with his support for balanced budgets, free markets, civil liberties, and a commonsense foreign policy,” said Ron Paul.
“I am proud to wholeheartedly endorse Kurt Bills for United States Senate and hope all of my friends and supporters will help him go all the way to Washington,” added Dr. Paul.
The US Senate race is down to a 3 man race between Rep. Kurt Bills, Pete Hegseth, and Dan Severson. One whisper out there is that the race is already over and Kurt Bills has it locked up due to his connection to the Paul campaign.
The Paul campaign is taking advantage of the open process in Minnesota and has been locking Delegate positions up in their quest to capture National Delegates for Paul’s Presidential race. Bills’ late entrance in to the US Senate race seems like a “Hey, I can just win the endorsement so I may was well get in this.” He’s an unknown and has little proof he can build and fully fund a statewide campaign to go against the media’s darling US Senator.
Its going to be an interesting race, well, it could be an interesting one if they are wrong and it isn’t already over. As I said, the Paul campaign has been diligently going after Delegate spots. The election of these Delegates wrapped up this weekend.
Did Paul & Bills get the 60% needed to get their guy elected – er endorsed? Because that my friends, is a BIG difference. Winning the endorsement is much different than winning an election.
In order to get elected, you have to beat Klobuchar. In order to do that, you have to do far more than win favor of a thousand or so Republican Delegates on May 19th. Its going to take millions and millions of dollars and hundreds of volunteers and a well run campaign and….. did I mention millions and millions of dollars – to as some folks say – “buy your own media” to knock off Klobuchar. Winning the endorsement doesn’t mean you beat Klobuchar.
And how you win the endorsement could mean you end up in worse shape than when you started.
I have nightmares about the 2008 convention and fear 2012 could be even worse.
RF Flashbacks:
The Red Hats Are Coming, The Red Hats Are Coming
Will we walk out of the St. Cloud Convention Center on May 19th united and with a singular goal of defeating Democrats? I hate to admit it, but at this point I am worried. I am. I worry that if the party s united and people are run out of there (no matter who they support for President) that the prospects for this party being able to function to November will be bleak.
Its where I sincerely hope that the people working on and running the US Senate campaigns take seriously. That them winning is not something in which the ends justify the means. That if they tear the party apart in order to win an endorsement, then the party will be broke, the base won’t help the nominee, and you could end up having huge swaths of Delegates not volunteer for the endorsed Republicans and end up seeing them vote 3rd party…… ( –> Dean Barkley) Fraken won by 300 votes, I’m fairly confident there were 300 GOP Delegates and Alternates for Rochester who voted against Norm Coleman. (not me mind you, I held my nose)
I’m seeing people from all over the state, party, and power rankings in the MNGOP put themselves ahead of what really matters. Either trying to stop one candidate because they may be in the way for 2014, former staffers who keep trying to find someone to throw in llST MINUTE….,
The primary objective for Republican Party of Minnesota is: Defeating Democrats and electing endorsed Republicans.
Members of Congress, operatives, you name it, who are climbing over people and candidates to either remain relevant or make sure no one leap frogs them in the ladder of power are going to lose us the US Senate race, maybe a Congressional seat or two, Majorities, which means we lose everything in this state if Dayton goes unchecked……
This race and more importantly the effectiveness of the Republican Party is the most important thing to me. No more ego stroking. No more power grabs. No more purity tests. We can’t afford to be divided by ourselves anymore. The stakes are too damn high.
As I have said about Santorum’s delusional rantings about a brokered convention would breath life and energy into the GOP….. anyone who agrees with that needs their dang head examined.
As for the 3 man race, the first big test of which candidate is top tier going into Congressional Conventions will be fundraising. Will anyone crack 6 figures? That’s something that no one has yet done in over a year of this campaign.
Can a freshman State Rep who has been in the statewide race for just a few weeks prove he can bring home the campaign bacon and unify the party? Can a Presidential campaign scorned in 2008, return 4 years later having garnered power and a possible majority and not exact revenge on people not even in the convention hall this time ?
Can a former state Rep. who lost a statewide race in a favorable Republican year, somehow finally find his mojo after a year of his campaigning going largely unnoticed?
And yes, can a first time candidate fresh off the battlefield prove he has what it takes to win hearts and minds in an endorsement race, build a statewide campaign, and not appear as the Johnny come lately what have you done for me lately?
The 1st Quarter fundraising deadline has passed and we should see some numbers from the campaigns next week. Hegseth raised like $19,000 last week alone. That was 1/4 of what Severson raised all last year. Can Bills prove he’s to be taken seriously with a strong showing in fundraising? Or is his path to the endorsement all about brute strength and Caucus organizing?
I try to be fair, or as I prefer, brutally honest. This isn’t a tickle fight. The stakes are high and what we do or who we choose to go up against the Democrats does matter. If anyone thinks they can win this race and win an election with only the people they agree with, let me save you some time, you will lose.
Look….
Senator Amy Klobuchar had $4.5 million in the bank to start this year and hasn’t had to spend a dime yet. Meaning, she will have way more after another 3 months of fundraising. The DFL has tens of millions on tap from unions, the Obama campaign, DFL, etc. They have an army at their disposal to go door to door. They have their special ops in the media ready to undermine everything the GOP does and says…..
I just desperately want people to keep their eye on the prize and not on the turf war started 4 years ago. I don’t give a damn who wins that battle, as far as I am concerned everyone lost it.
What I care about is who wins the war in November. I think I know who is best suited to be the US Senate candidate. That’s Pete Hegseth. If you differ from me, explain why I am wrong. Now is the time to have that debate because on May 20, 2012 its time for each and every one of us to work side by side all the way until November 6th…..
I like Pete Hegseth, I think more needs to be said about what he did with the Princeton paper and how he swam upstream against the liberals. He has national connections and appearances on Fox, which gives him an upper hand on the “star power” category. Which will help in the general election, but if he doesn’t win the endorsement, there will be no general election for Pete. Is Pete or someone for him calling delegates to ask them to vote for him? I know one delegate that said Kurt is the only one she has received a call from so far.
Kurt Bills has the delegate force of the RP camp that has been very active in MN this year at local conventions. He sounds real good when he gives his speech about teaching DC an economics lesson, however, with the RP association I take every word with a grain of salt and wonder where he stands on every thing else that is important. I know other delegates that when they hear him talk about economics get stars in their eyes and don’t think about anything else.
Andy,
I read, with great interest,your recent post on Kurt Bills, Amy Klobuchar and the upcoming US Senate race.As always, your posts are well thought out and articulate.However, I think you are missing one important point in your analysis.
As you may remember, I spent 8 years as a member of the Minnesota House and over 8 years running John Kline’s Minnesota operation. If you looked at my voting record as a member of the House and my time working with John, you would clearly see that I do not qualify as a “Paulbot”. However, in the past week, I signed on as campaign manager for the Bills campaign for one simple reason.
When John was endorsed in 2002 to run against Bill Luther in the new 2nd district, America was 6 months removed from 9/11.Our economy was strong and growing but the one thing that kept Minnesotans awake at night was national security. The Kline campaign touted John’s 25 years of military service as a Marine and his years as military advisor to 2 presidents. Our polling showed the his military experience made voters feel more secure and, as you know, he won by 11 points.
Today, things are different.While we all honor and are thankful for the service and sacrifice of men and women like Pete Hegseth, Minnesotans are weary of war.With unemployment at over 8%, gas at $4 a gallon and rising and a national debt approaching 16 trillion dollars, the thing that keeps us up at night is the economy.
Over the past 6 years, Minnesota has voted to send a lawyer, a comedian and a community organizer to Washington to fix the economy. It hasn’t worked.
Kurt Bills is an expert in economics. He has taught economics for 15 years. He and his wife Cindy own a small business. The campaign against Amy Klobuchar and Barack Obama will be fought over the economy, not the war. That’s why over half of the Republican Caucus in St. Paul supports Kurt. Some them are Romney supporters. Some of them support Santorum, Gingrich and Paul, but they support Kurt because they know he’s the only candidate who can take on Amy on the economy.
They know he’s the only candidate that can win.
Mike Osskopp
Bills for Senate
Wow Mike. You know if I wrote that, certain powerful people would say I was attacking Congressman Kline.
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Since you’ve recently accused me of being an “attack dog” for the Bills campaign via the Severson campaign, it may interest you to know that I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the Bills campaign and the folly of organizing to endorse without thinking ahead to how to run a statewide race.