Conservatives Bash Cornyn, Threaten to Withhold Donations to GOP

[babylonsister]

Conservatives Bash Cornyn, Threaten to Withhold Donations to GOP
By Jonathan Allen and Bart Jansen, CQ Staff


The Texas Republican in charge of helping his party win Senate seats recently moved to narrow the field in Florida’s 2010 primary but now faces a much wider problem: an incendidary backlash by the conservative movement.

As soon as Gov. Charlie Crist made the long-anticipated announcement that he would run, John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, gave Crist a quick and hearty endorsement, even though another Republican, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, wants the job.

For Cornyn, the calculus was simple math: Crist is a proven statewide vote-getter who can raise money on his own.

Since the endorsement, Cornyn has touted polling showing the better-known Crist with a 53 percent to 18 percent lead and said he would decide “on a case-by-case basis” which Senate primary contests to get involved in.

But Cornyn’s move left conservatives furious over the effort to quash the nascent campaign of Rubio, a young Cuban-American whom they say embodies the GOP’s goal of trying to expand the party’s appeal to minority voters.

A Web site known as “Not One Red Cent” — and connected to popular Republican activists Erick Erickson and John Hawkins — is encouraging conservatives to withhold their money from the NRSC and call for Cornyn’s resignation. Rubio, 37, has become the site’s cause célèbre.

“The leadership of the Republican Party keeps saying we need to get back to our principles and talking about how important it is to attract more young voters and Hispanic Americans. Then, we get a viable, young, conservative, Hispanic candidate running for Senate and they arrogantly try to shove him aside to make way for a better connected, moderate pol who’s more acceptable to the GOP establishment,” Hawkins said in a statement released Thursday.

“This cuts to the core of what’s wrong with today’s Republican Party.”

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003123576

[maddezmom]

1. that's beautiful

:D

[last_texas_dem]

2. Happy to say that I can actually agree with the Repugs on something:

John Cornyn sucks!

[monmouth]

3. Rubio is a fav of Jeb's....n/t

[AndreaCG]

4. Do you think the RW will get so mad at Crist that they will shove him out of the closet?

Either overtly or by spreading rumors. He's featured in that documentary about closeted Republicans, right? How conclusive was the material in the documentary?

I'd like Rubio to run in the general cause I think he'll be more easily defeated. Crist isn't bad for a R but he's still a R.

[Laelth]

5. They're nuts. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[msongs]

6. and here I was thinking glbts were "minority voters" nt