Party Down
By MARC AMBINDER
NYT
Washington
INTRAPARTY scrimmages are by no means new to American politics. But during this election cycle, a suspiciously large number of candidates with thin résumés and barely formed political identities are beating well-financed, better-established opponents. What’s more, these upstarts are winning primary races, in no small part, by running against the notion that their opponents were endorsed by the party — by running, that is, against the parties themselves.
Tuesday’s Republican primaries are an object lesson. “Outsider” candidates who had been rejected by the establishment or had no ties to it were able, with the proper mix of money, message and technology, to defeat state and national party organizations. In Florida, the former State House speaker (and Tea Party favorite) Marco Rubio, in the race for the Senate nomination, pushed Gov. Charlie Crist out of the Republican Party; Rick Scott, a former hospital chief executive, won the gubernatorial primary over a party-preferred candidate.
In Alaska, Joe Miller — an Iraq war veteran with no political experience, and whose existence was unknown to most Republican primary voters a few weeks ago — is poised to defeat the incumbent senator, Lisa Murkowski, albeit by less than 2,000 votes.
On Wednesday, Senator Murkowski’s political allies floated a trial balloon to reporters: perhaps she would run in the general election as a third-party candidate. Erick Erickson, the editor of the right-wing blog RedState, fired off a message on Twitter that encapsulates the disdain with which Washington-based political party committees are viewed by the activists on both sides of the aisle: “Sore loser Lisa Murkowski considers 3rd party bid. NRSC backed candidates have a habit of doing that.” By NRSC, he meant the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the organization that oversees the party’s Senate races.
(More here.)
NYT
Washington
INTRAPARTY scrimmages are by no means new to American politics. But during this election cycle, a suspiciously large number of candidates with thin résumés and barely formed political identities are beating well-financed, better-established opponents. What’s more, these upstarts are winning primary races, in no small part, by running against the notion that their opponents were endorsed by the party — by running, that is, against the parties themselves.
Tuesday’s Republican primaries are an object lesson. “Outsider” candidates who had been rejected by the establishment or had no ties to it were able, with the proper mix of money, message and technology, to defeat state and national party organizations. In Florida, the former State House speaker (and Tea Party favorite) Marco Rubio, in the race for the Senate nomination, pushed Gov. Charlie Crist out of the Republican Party; Rick Scott, a former hospital chief executive, won the gubernatorial primary over a party-preferred candidate.
In Alaska, Joe Miller — an Iraq war veteran with no political experience, and whose existence was unknown to most Republican primary voters a few weeks ago — is poised to defeat the incumbent senator, Lisa Murkowski, albeit by less than 2,000 votes.
On Wednesday, Senator Murkowski’s political allies floated a trial balloon to reporters: perhaps she would run in the general election as a third-party candidate. Erick Erickson, the editor of the right-wing blog RedState, fired off a message on Twitter that encapsulates the disdain with which Washington-based political party committees are viewed by the activists on both sides of the aisle: “Sore loser Lisa Murkowski considers 3rd party bid. NRSC backed candidates have a habit of doing that.” By NRSC, he meant the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the organization that oversees the party’s Senate races.
(More here.)
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