Super Tuesday: Labor Unions Lose Their Political Punch

by Publius

In today’s Washington Examiner, the always interesting Michael Barone dissects Labor’s big loss in Arkansas:

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She wanted to win reelection and knew that card check was political poison in almost entirely non-unionized Arkansas.

Big labor decided to teach her—and all Democratic members of Congress who were quailing at the prospect of voting for card check—a lesson. The lesson would be that, however much a vote for card check would reduce your chances of winning a general election, opposition to card check would result in your defeat in a Democratic primary. Their ready and willing instrument was Bill Halter, whose path to higher office seemed otherwise occluded. At the beginning of March he announced his candidacy and proclaimed himself the champion of the working man. Blanche Lincoln, in agonized response, proclaimed herself the target of outside interests. In a matter of weeks labor unions and moveon.org—originally formed to defend Bill Clinton against impeachment—sent millions to Bill Halter’s campaign. Lincoln, recently elevated to the Chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee, sponsored a bill to shut off all derivative trading. The Obama White House carefully protected this bill from defeat while the primary and runoff contests were pending, while Bill Clinton campaign gallantly for Lincoln and against his appointee Halter.

The Clinton intervention may have proved decisive. Although the Clintons have left Arkansas, Arkansas voters still have warm feelings toward them, as witnessed by Hillary Clinton’s 70%-26% defeat of Barack Obama in the 2008 Arkansas Democratic presidential primary—the biggest percentage win in her campaign. Lincoln won the runoff by a 52%-48% margin—hardly inspiring but a whole lot better than a defeat.


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What Super Tuesday Told Us

by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Though the five months between now and Election Day might seem like an eternity in politics, at least one thing is clear: Top tier Republican candidates are solidifying the playing field and ensuring that the GOP will challenge more than enough Democrat-held seats to put the majority in play.

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As we enter the height of the campaign season, both the field of candidates and the issues at hand are becoming crystal clear and they all bode poorly for Democrats. A significant number of Republican candidates in targeted races have cleared the final hurdle before the general election. They are now ready to dedicate the next five months to holding their opponents accountable for an agenda that has been entirely ineffective in stemming the tide of a devastating recession and, in the eyes of many voters, has actually made the situation worse. Combined with a political environment that grows more turbulent by the day, Democrats will be on the run from now until November.

GOP CANDIDATES ALREADY CAMPAIGNING FOR NOVEMBER

With 50 percent of the country’s primaries now behind us, top-tier Republican candidates are already playing offense against Democrats in over 40 seats – a larger number than we need to win back the majority. These top-tier candidates have either already won their primaries or are on pace to win the Republican nomination, which will allow them to focus on their path to victory with an eye toward November.

Contrary to assertions that recent contested primaries have left the GOP divided, we need to look no further than last night’s results to see that strong candidates have emerged to give Republicans the best possible chance for victory in November. By-and-large the primary contests that have taken place have served to strengthen the respective candidacies of those like Robert Hurt and Scott Rigell in Virginia. In these districts and countless others, Republicans and independents are quickly coalescing around GOP nominees in a concerted effort to send Democrats a message on Election Day.

From a district-by-district standpoint, the numbers are stacked against the Democrats. The Cook Political Report has consistently predicted “a very tough political environment for Democrats come November, with severe losses likely, significantly greater than the average first-term midterm loss of 16 seats in the House.”

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