Another GOP candidate withdraws from 1st District congressional primary(Idaho)

[ccharles000]

Michael Chadwick of Post Falls has announced he’s withdrawing from the race and endorsing GOP rival Raul Labrador, and also launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate in the 2014 election. That’s when current U.S. Sen. Jim Risch’s term in office ends; Chadwick didn’t say why he’d want to challenge Risch, should Risch seek a second term. Instead, Chadwick spins a conspiracy theory centering around fellow GOP congressional candidate Vaughn Ward, whom Chadwick contends represents “powerful special interest groups in New York City and Washington, D.C.” In a letter published on Chadwick’s campaign Web site, he calls Ward, a Marine and decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, a “protege and surrogate of the military-industrial-intelligence establishment” who will “vote to build up and sustain the Permanent War Machine.”

Chadwick, 60, says on his Web site that he’s a former aide to U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a BYU grad with a master’s degree in political science, and head of an array of organizations including the “New American Colonies” program, the “Liberty Park USA Foundation,” the online “Alexander Hamilton Institute for International Trade” and the online “James Madison Institute for Republican Government.” Since 1994, he says, “we have been researching and writing papers, monographs and books which are designed to promote the freedom, sovereignty and independence of America.”

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2010/apr/26/another-gop-candidate-withdraws-1st-district-congressional-primary/

[Better Today]

1. Their current, Walt Minnick, DINO, is the worst of the worse... got the only Dem TeaParty endorse...

endorsement. How f'ing sad is that? So I doubt anyone will usurp his proven republican ways.

http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2010/04/15/tea-party-express-endorses-walt-minnick-d-id/

Top Democratic leaders and Democrats in conservative districts are among the names the tea party movement hopes to defeat this year. At the last stop of its nationwide tour in Washington this morning, organizers of the Tea Party Express revealed their list of 2010 “Tea Party Targets,” a list that includes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Alan Grayson.

Others on the list include Democratic politicians representing relatively conservative states, including Reps. Betsy Markey (D-CO), Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

The group also announced a list of Tea Party Heroes, which included tea party favorites like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) as well as a single Democrat — Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID). ...(snip)

The decision by the Tea Party Express to endorse Democrat Walt Minnick in Idaho underlines the dilemma facing the various umbrella organizations for the local Tea Parties and why the interests of those organizations are, of necessity, inimical to the interests of the members of those groups.

The dilemma facing the Tea Party Express, along with other umbrella groups, is pretty simple: product differentiation and branding. If these groups are to continue to exist and have influence they must bring something to the table that is missing from the main political parties. If these groups only endorse conservatives it means that by and large they will only be endorsing Republicans. If they only endorse Republicans they will be labeled as a subsidiary of the GOP. This presents the groups with a branding (you can’t be independent and grassroots if you are only endorsing one party’s candidates) and a fund raising (why donate to the Ladies Auxiliary when you can give to the main organization?) problem.

Minnick is a convenient beard for the Tea Party Express in this respect. It isn’t that Minnick is a really bad candidate because he’s widely disliked by Idaho Dems. In fact, at one time Minnick was a Republican and has described himself as “I’m not a Democrat … I’m an Independent seeking the Democratic nomination.” (So the description “political opportunist” should be in his bio somewhere in the interests of full disclosure.)

(much more at link)

[Hippo_Tron]

2. It's Idaho, the district is ridiculously Republican

In other words, we're lucky that Minnick even has a D after his name.

[Better Today]

3. Lucky? I don't think so.