South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint got the idea for his Senate Conservatives Fund while making fundraising calls for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2008. Donors told him they wouldn't give a dime to the GOP until the party returned to its conservative principals. Marc Theissen examines DeMint's success in an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post:
He began asking: What if there was a PAC that would give only to conservative candidates? The Senate Conservatives Fund was born. DeMint raised $1.3 million in 2009 and has set a goal of raising another $3 million in 2010 -- all of it going to insurgent candidates shunned by the GOP establishment.
His first endorsement was to support a primary bid against one of his then-Republican colleagues, Arlen Specter. DeMint backed former Rep. Pat Toomey (disclosure: I once worked for Toomey), and Specter soon switched parties to run as Democrat. Soon after that, the NRSC recruited popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to run for Senate. DeMint backed Marco Rubio, who was then 30 points down in the polls. Rubio soon surged ahead of Crist, and the Florida governor announced last week he was bolting the GOP primary to make an independent run.
DeMint's success in these races gave the Senate Conservatives Fund credibility, and he has since charged into several more races. DeMint endorsed State Assemblyman Chuck Devore in the California Senate primary against liberal Republican Tom Campbell and the NRSC-favored candidate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. On April 14, DeMint endorsed Colorado District Attorney Ken Buck in his race against the NRSC-favored candidate, former lieutenant governor Jane Norton. And on April 21, he endorsed State Sen. Marlin Stutzman in tomorrow's Indiana GOP primary against the NRSC's candidate, former senator Dan Coats. In a matter of days, DeMint raised nearly $220,000 for Stutzman, which he hopes has made the race competitive. "I'm not sure if I got in soon enough," he says.
Read the whole thing. And if you want to make a political contribution that will be used to elect true conservatives, consider making one to the Senate Conservatives Fund.
At this week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Newt Gingrich appealed to the GOP faithful to rebrand the party as the "Party of Yes" instead of the "party of no." The architect of the GOP return to House majority status in 1994 found few takers. From The Hill:
Big-name Republicans aren’t joining Newt Gingrich’s call to rebrand the GOP the “Party of Yes.”
The former House Speaker kicked things off Thursday by urging the GOP to ditch the “party of no” label by focusing on its own ideas, rather than merely saying no to the Democrats.
On Friday, though, a pair of Republicans mentioned as potential 2012 presidential candidates — Sarah Palin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — both distanced themselves from the concept and said Republicans shouldn’t apologize for being the “party of no.”
Jindal referred directly to Gingrich, saying he was right in some ways. But he also said, in some harsh terms, that Republicans shouldn’t be afraid of the label.
“Let’s be clear: A bad idea is a bad idea, and shame on us for being afraid to say so,” Jindal said. He added that, when it comes to bad ideas, “We shouldn’t just be the 'party of no,' we should be the 'party of "hell no." ' ”
Palin also weighed in during her speech Friday. She said Republicans should embrace the label.
“There is no shame in being the 'party of no' if the other side proposes something that violates our Constitution and conscience,” she said.
The informed and cogent community of Lucianne.com isn't impressed with Gingrich's approach. Take a look at this thread on the matter. Here's just one example from poster Jon Fraud Carry:
Go sit down on a couch with Nancy Pelosi, Newt. Whine about Gullible Warming.
We are not the party of "No".
We are the party of "Hell, NO!"
It is quite apparent that Texas Governor Rick Perry isn't buying Gingrich's approach either. Here's his speech from the SRLC conference (via Hotair):
Regarding Perry's claim that he is not running for President in 2012, perhaps the Governor doth protest too much. I believe his brand of states' rights conservatism will attract many followers in the current political environment. My favorite quote from Perry's speech:
"The federal government needs to do 3 things really well: Stand the military, defend our borders and deliver the mail."
