as we move towards 2014 the race is on
not the actual races but the primary challenges for who will be running
in the senate for 2014 and oddly enough when you look at the actual serious
challenges that are being waged in the primaries against
established Senate candidates almost all of them against republicans which is an
interesting little a
a I guess consequence the the plug liberman we live in
was part of the map here you can see the different states were serious primary
challenges have been launched obviously the ones in red against republicans
the one in blue against the democrat let's get that out of the way first you
have
senator Brian Schatz now he has never run for Senate in Hawaii he was
appointed there
after the death about senator and you know I into up
now what's most controversial about that is apparently the dying senators wish
was that the the person's challenging and now coleen Colleen
honey boo sir would be appointed to the position she is now actually in a
primary contest against Brian Schatz
I don't know where I stand on that I don't know that the dying which is the
senator
necessarily matter that much but it does seem other they went a different
direction
and it would be interesting if she ended up running for Senate anyway but there
you see that the vast majority are against
republicans and as you might expect based on all past few electoral cycles
most people challenging them our Tea Party candidates
and they will make the case that they need to run because the current
Republican Party
is just not conservative another it's not defending their values
advancing their political goals well I did a little bit of research
looked up the American Conservative Union like many organizations does
rankings every year where they judge based on a number I love sample votes
how conservative a senator is and so if it's true that these Tea Party
candidates have to run because these republican senators are just so damn
liberal lately
you'd imagine that their ratings would be pretty low let's look at a couple
beers
first %uh senator Mitch McConnell currently the leader of the
senate Republicans he has a 100 percent rating with the American Conservative
Union over the course last year
and ninety .9 percent rating over his entire life span in this
at in the senate you bring up a nap per second would jump over tennessee lamar
alexander seventy-seven percent rating
lifetime I we've got Lindsey Graham eighty-nine percent
rating John Cornyn ninety-three percent rating Mike NZ up in wyoming ninety 2.73
percent lifetime rating
and pat robertson and eighty 6.47 percent
rating it is not my belief that the American Conservative Union
makes it super easy to get these a high ratings
for the republicans as I imagine that they actually stand for something
special now the democrats actually get a0
it seems like that rating means something and so the level of political
and ideological
insanity that would lead to Mike and the John Cornyn
Mitch McConnell he wasn't alone anything to be done for about five years in the
senate
but he is he's obstructing the conservative message he is stopping you
from advancing
your Ted Cruz fantasies 'em ultimate conservative power in america:
that seems pretty ridiculous I think now obviously the the establishment
Republicans are not very happy with this
they like having those seats and they know from the past few elections
that when you put these crazy tea party Republicans Democrats sometimes they
lose we saw that
i in the case have generally comments about abortion rights and things like
that
they say crazy things or in Christine O'Donnell's position
are in her example she just doesn't know anything about politics and she used to
be a witch
you don't win Senate elections in that way and so you can expect that if they
win all these primary battles
a couple the seats will be lost that could have been one if they'd had
an establishment Republican great I don't want either of them but
Anderson governor pointed you now when it comes to the democrats we have a
statement from the National Republican Senatorial Committee leader Brad
Dayspring
he's talking about the democrats that are not being a primary and he's not
happy about it
he says democratic senators running for reelection are far outside the
mainstream in their states and their liberal voting record show it
they voted with President Obama between nineteen ninety-five percent the time in
states where his approval rating
is under forty percent trying to show out there oddly loyal to their president
in states where they should have a hard time getting reelected they go on to say
in other words it's pretty hard to get to the left and Mary Landrieu a
Louisiana
Kay Hagan in North Carolina mark baggage in alaska jeanne Shaheen at New
Hampshire
our mark Udall in Colorado and beat all viable they fight the fish by saying the
senators are already too extreme and liberal further states
which is a big reason why all their numbers are plummeting
now I've criticized the Tea Party a lot there I'm gonna criticize
but Brad Dayspring here if you think that Mary Landrieu in que Hagan
can't to be attacked from the left I don't know what country or time period
you live in
on they are some love know Mark Begich generally pretty liberal
mark Udall I have a ton a problem with him but terms and Mary Landrieu in que
Hagan
your up i'm too for King mind they can't be primary from the left
and very well should be primary from the left I generally think the primary is a
good thing
regardless if you're voting at record if nothing else it tells you that over the
next six years
you do have to worry about future primaries and so whether it's
republicans
or whether it's a democrat I generally think that it's not the worst thing in
the world to get them out of some other complacency
and understand that the into the day they have to listen to the voters
in the states were voting in the primary challenges and not just to their donors
the people action the communicate with
during their term in the senate