Monday, May 23, 2011

NEVADA - WILL CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 2 BE VICTIMIZED?

Is Nevada CD2 the next NY23?

On May 20, 2011, in House Races, by Eric Odom
Back in 2009 a special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District created major problems for Republicans, resulting in a loss to Democrats that should have never happened. In that special election county (party) chairs selected the nominee, leaving party voters out of the process.
As a result, leftist Republican Dede Scozzafava got the nod from party bosses and became the official Republican candidate to face Democrat Bill Owens in the general special election. The problem, however, is that many activists and voters in the party supported the real Republican candidate, Doug Hoffman.
Doug Hoffman then decided to run as a third party candidate under the conservative party. The patriot movement sent millions of dollars into Hoffman’s corner and a three way political war unfolded on the national stage.

Liberal Republicans like Newt Gingrich strongly supported leftist Dede Scozzafava, while movement figures like Michele Malkin, Club for Growth, Tea Party Express and MANY others pulled for Doug Hoffman. Dede Scozzafava eventually dropped out and endorsed Bill Owens, who ended up winning the election and now serves as the Congressman for NY23.
Nevada has this exact same scenario beginning to unfold in the 2nd Congressional District. NV2 was formerly the seat held by Dean Heller who is now Nevada Senator, appointed by the Governor to replace retired Senator John Ensign.
Two conservative candidates were gunning for the seat in the upcoming “open” special election… Navy veteran Kirk Lippold and former Senate candidate Sharron Angle. Lippold has a lot of appeal for movement voters and Angle has a huge fundraising list. There is no doubt these two candidates threatened establishment Republicans and the thought of one of them winning was unsettling to say the least.
In response, the Nevada Republican Party took to the courts to try and change the rules. The Nevada GOP wanted party bosses to select a nominee for the party instead of seeing an open “all in” special election.
This is where it becomes clear on the reasons why the party moved for this outcome… Nevada GOP Chairman Mark Amodei wants the seat. It’s apparent Mark Amodei can’t win the seat with Lippold and Angle fighting for it in an open and fair election.
It looks like the Nevada GOP and Mark Amodei got their way.
Nevada Republicans won a legal victory Thursday when a District Court judge overruled Secretary of State Ross Miller’s decision to open up the special election for former Rep. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) seat to all candidates.
The likely scenario will now be that Amodei snags the nomination through the party bosses, and Angle (possibly Lippold as well) will run as Independents. If this happens, the door will be opened for Democrats to have a shot at the seat for the first time in History.
Granted, an open and fair special election would have benefited Democrats as well, but at least the voters would have decided who to select and not the party bosses.
The race for NV2 is going to get messy and an all out internal war is going to unfold in the coming months. We’ll report on the election as the news unravels.
-Eric Odom

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