The Tea Party Leadership Fund is hoping to find “credible challengers” to any Republican who voted for the shutdown deal in October. At the top of the list: House Speaker John Boehner.
WASHINGTON — A tea party group has launched a campaign to support primary challenges against all 87 Republicans who voted for the deal in late October to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.I continue to be amazed at the capacity for those on the right to be gullible in the long term separation from their presumably hard-earned money. So, it doesn’t surprise me this is one more example of the same thing we see in so many of the crazy and radical and often just plain false assertions used by the radical right to generate cash. Other than the big money behind the Tea Party, like the Koch Brothers, I am actually surprised that the grass roots radical right aren’t tapped out by now.
The Tea Party Leadership Fund, a PAC affiliated with the group TheTeaParty.net, began a fundraising push — dubbed the “Primaries for Traitors Fund” — shortly after the shutdown deal passed in the House, and they are now ramping up efforts to find “credible candidates” in each of the districts, said the fund’s treasurer, Dan Backer.
“From our perspective, we see this as a signature vote. You can’t be a conservative and vote to raise the debt ceiling,” Backer said. “I recognize there are some places where voters may actually think that was the right vote. And there may be places where you have an incumbent who wins with 90% of the vote every time and there’s not a credible challenger. I recognize that, but we’re certainly going to do our best.”
Backer says the group has honed in on a few specific members to start: Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, New York Rep. Peter King, North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger, Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany, and most importantly, Backer said, House Speaker John Boehner in Ohio.
“Our goal is to keep going one after another after another as our resources allow. To get our feet wet, we’re starting out with a few, but nobody is going to get a pass,” he said.
Questions have been raised about the PAC’s fundraising. The liberal blog ThinkProgress called their fundraising push a “gimmick.” Despite raising more than $1 million in 2012, the group only spent around $27,000 in support of two Republican candidates last cycle, according to Open Secrets, and no money against Republican incumbents.
The key paragraph from BF is this one:
Backer says they are deadly serious about finding candidates. He acknowledges their goal may be unattainable but doesn’t think that should stop them from trying to make life difficult for members. And those members whose voting records have been otherwise solidly conservative? Backer wants to take them out too.
Will they really come looking for a primary challenger in either Kline or Paulsen’s district? They aren’t naming either as their first priority, but per Down with Tyranny, they DO still make the 2nd tier/ next greatest priority list, and once making that list, if the DO find a primary challenger, then it becomes an issue for the MN GOP, one they are in poor position to counter-fund. This doesn’t look to be a particularly big dollar effort to primary either of our right wing Congressional delegation, but if this bunch of baggers are joined by other groups, other PACs, it could get very interesting indeed. The Baker’s Dozen targeted so far are:
• Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Buck McKeon (R-CA)
• David Valadao (R-CA)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)
• Michael “Mikey Suits” Grimm (R-NY)
• John Kline (R-MN)
• Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
• Erik Paulsen (R-MN)
• Dave Reichert (R-WA)
• Pat Meehan (R-PA)
• Darrell Issa (R-CA)
• Joe Heck (R-NV)
• Mike Coffman (R-CO)
