Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Ward's final woe

Well, congratulations to Raul Labrador for his victory over the hapless Vaughn Ward. I wonder, did Labrador win because his very conservative tea party-ish message resonated with the voters, or did Ward's many screw ups cost him a victory? The latter, I suspect, based on the old adage "Democrats want to fall in love, Republicans want to fall in line."

The establishment was clearly behind Ward, and Reps should have fallen in line behind that party endorsement. Idaho voters seldom depart from the desires of the R party leadership, so, something happened. Can't blame anti-incumbent fervor in this case, since there was no incumbent R in the race.

Now what? Well, Minnick can't run to Labrador's right (I don't think, though God knows he'll try). Maybe the "repeal the 17th Amendment" bit of nuttiness will came to haunt him, though I doubt it. Short of something like "Nuke their ass and take their gas," nuttiness is not a hindrance to getting elected in Idaho.

Minnick probably can't use the immigration issue against Labrador. RL seems to have staked out a position that should play well in Idaho, at least as it's stated on hisweb site.
Raul supports strengthening border security and cracking down on illegal immigration both in Idaho and across America. It remains vitally important that we redouble our efforts to secure our borders and control illegal immigration. In Congress, Raul will support real immigration reform that puts border security and enforcement of immigration laws first.
Labrador manages to say "border security" three times in that short statement.

1 comment:

Tara A. Rowe said...

"Well, Minnick can't run to Labrador's right (I don't think, though God knows he'll try)."

Unfortunately, your parenthetical comment may ring true. Minnick may already be more conservative than Labrador. It's just going to be a matter of who puts their conservative colors on display the most.