Wouldn’t it be nice to replace our entire current Congress with brand new people?
Tuesday’s Ohio Republican Primary was a start. Congresswoman Jean Schmidt lost to challenger Brad Wenstrup, a surgeon and Iraq war veteran. As Dennis Catanese at Politico intriguingly put it, Schmidt was “quietly upended in stunning fashion.”
“Stunning” — because incumbents virtually always win, especially in their own party primaries. According to the Alliance for Self-Governance, “God recalls incumbents more frequently than voters do.” Between 2002 and 2008, only twelve congressional incumbents lost in their primary elections, while thirteen died in office.
“Quietly” — because some folks didn’t see it coming. Sadly, not everyone reads Common Sense. Back in February, I said there may be “no better Valentine for our Republic” than the effort by a new SuperPAC, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, which targets incumbents for defeat in primary elections.
The Campaign goes after both Republicans and Democrats. Further, “[w]e are not issue-driven,” says Curtis Ellis, the group’s spokesman, who declares the goal is simply “holding incumbents accountable.”
Made possible through the new campaign finance rules won in the Citizens United court decision, the Super PAC has raised $1.8 million and spent $200,000 against Schmidt. Their Web advertisement squarely told voters:
Congresswoman Jean Schmidt was named “most corrupt” by a Washington watchdog group. Schmidt voted to increase your taxes by opposing a tax cut extension. Then, Schmidt increased the federal debt by $2.8 trillion. One bailout vote gave $50 billion to the parent company of her husband’s employer. Rock the boat. Vote in the March 6 Primary. It’s time to end Schmidt’s cruise.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Quietly, Stunning”
This is just a great start. I just pray that this is the beginning of an avalanche of voter intelligence.….The comedy of Ohio is the Kucinich/Kaptur vote.….Not much difference here, in fact maybe a worse choice.
In regard to the comment by Rick, I believe Kucinich for all his leftism, was the only Representative to initiate articles of impeachment against Bushwhacker II. Even Ron Paul did not do that, nor for that matter has anyone issued articles of impeachment against OSlammer for extrajudicial killings and signing IDWOT (NDAA 2012, provisions for indefinite detention without trial).
Which brings up a good point consistent with Paul’s scintillating message today: why not have a Jeffersonian replacement of the entire government for actions ‘destructive of these ends’ (of Constitutional liberty), as I argue here: .
By the way, marvelous history lesson on slavery and celestial Tom Paine. Your Today in Freedom and Thought of the Day features are marvelous. Keep up the good work!
Recommendation: implement an editing feature for comments, so they don’t wind up with unintended references.
On the opposite end of the rainbow Dennis Kucinich lost. He is in Cleveland which is on the opposite corner of the State and in my book has more guts than most other people in politics. But as an incumbant I am glad is is being replaced, I just wish I knew that these Ohio replacements had strong wills to “JUST SAY NO” to business as usual.
Buckley said some words to the effect that we would be better served by the first couple hundred people listed in the phone book. Given the inherent corruption that goes along with any political longevity, he was unfortunatly right. If this organization can pry ANY of them out, then it is worthy of support.