The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Republicans are worried, I think, about Kristi

Having been invited on Facebook by Steve Wesolick to attend the Republican Ambassadors luncheon at the Holiday Inn today, I attended.

Rich Sattgast, Jason Gant, Dusty Johnson and Jarrod Johnson, statewide candidates for Treasurer, Sec. of State, PUC, and School and Public Lands, respectively, used most of their 5 minutes to emphasize how important it is to get out the vote for Kristi.

This suggests a couple of things to me. First, each of these candidates probably feels comfortable in his race, and I agree with that assessment. Any increase in voter turnout for Kristi will also be an increase in voter turnout for any of these candidates. Second, I sensed a bit of worry that Kristi might be losing.

Jason Gant was the only candidate who proposed a specific policy plank. He thinks a photo ID is a necessary part of a voter's gear at the polls. He said, "We want to avoid being an Ohio or Florida in a future election." The suggestion was that Democrats attempted to cheat the nation of President Bush in Ohio in 2004 and Florida in 2000. My suspicions lie in a different direction in those two elections.


I wore a sport coat full of YES on 13 buttons. It was a little like I had leprosy. No one was mean, but no one really wanted me hangin' near 'em, either. In the old days, I used to regularly experience offers to have the shit beat out of me. We Libertarians are changing the face of the Republican Party. Kinder. Gentler.

2 comments:

caheidelberger said...

Pix on that jacket? :-)

I'd like to read worry in those GOTV exhortations... but I can just as easily read it as, "I'm down-ticket. People aren't going to get out of the chair to vote for me. If I send people out on GOTV, I need to arm them with the 'Vote Kristi!' message, because she's the attention-getter."

As usual, I could be wrong.

Bob Newland said...

Your analysis is probably at least as educted as mine, Cory.

As for the request; you asked for it, you got it. There is (or soon will be) a photo of the jacket with pins on the topic post.