Friday, July 16, 2010

Erick Erickson: It's time for conservatives to get off the fence

Interesting piece on Red State today from Erick Erickson. Essentially, Erickson says it's time for every conservative to get behind Tim Huelskamp and stop messing around with that other guy.
This is one of those seats where if conservatives do not act immediately, a terrible Republican will get elected, serve forty years in Congress, and we will hate every minute of it. Tim Huelskamp is the conservative with the best chance of winning.
Read more at redstate.com.


The political metamorphosis of Jim Barnett

Bob Weeks at the Voice for Liberty in Wichita posted an interesting article a few days ago where he took the legislative vote ratings for both Sens. Tim Huelskamp and Jim Barnett and graphed them over time. It was so interesting to me that I went back to the vote ratings and created my own graph, but with a few events highlighted in Jim Barnett's political career. The result showed a politician who clearly has no moral or philosophical compass by which he governs.

As you can see below, Barnett's fiscal track record improves and declines dramatically depending on the year and what kind of election he's likely to face. In 2004 for example, he faced his first re-election to the Senate and improved his score with the Kansas Taxpayer's Network from 11% to 50% accordingly. Then in 2006, he scored a 100% rating for the first time. This, of course, coincided with his campaign against several other candidates for the Republican governor's nomination.

But in 2008, facing little opposition for his Senate seat and coming off a good amount of name recognition, the old Jim comes back with his liberal ways.

And now that election day 2010 is upon us, we once again see an upswing in his scores.

When put this way, the say anything, do anything Barnett that I know shines through. Anything to get elected, anything for more power.

And Tim Huelskamp? A record to run to, not from.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Huelskamp "in the driver's seat" with almost $400K

The Huelskamp campaign is "in the driver's seat" when it comes to cash on hand, according to the campaign and recently released FEC campaign finance reports.

With just a few weeks left until the primary, Huelskamp reported nearly $400,000 in cash on hand, over 80% more than second place finisher Jim Barnett and more than twice as much as Tracey Mann and Rob Wasinger.

What this means is clear; Huelskamp is able to write his own story for the remaining days of a the campaign. A recent KWCH/Survey USA poll showed a statistical tie among the top three candidates, but the advantage clearly lies with the Huelskamp campaign now that the cash on hand picture is clear.
“This cash on hand total puts Tim Huelskamp in a commanding position to win this race over the last 18 days,” said Huelskamp spokesman David Ray. “Cash to spend on voter contact is the number that matters in these final days, and Huelskamp is running away with it.”
Further bolstering his position is a rock solid record to run to, not from.

More on that later...