Thursday, June 4th, 2009...9:17 am
Full Court Word Press
A couple of days ago, Jimmy Boegle at the Weekly poked fun at the Tucson Citizen for putting together their site using free Word Press software. What was worse was that they used the absolute barest generic “template,” the one that many of you may remember as the spartan blue screen that this blog would occasionally “flip” before I found out how to prevent that from happening. You’d think that with them still making money from the JOA, they could spruce the place up a bit.
I resisted kicking at them, ’specially since they said that they were going to contact local bloggers to contribute. Didn’t want to ruin my chances, ya know.
They do seem to have improved the site a bit. At this rate, they’ll be able to make fun of the Arizona Republic’s home page soon.
So, I got a call from an associate who wanted to inform me that one of their contributors was taking “shots” at me. I needed to investigate.
I’d barely call what he did “taking a shot.” As a matter of fact, he agreed somewhat with my point about Jesse Kelly’s ads on Drudge Report. He talks about deficiences he saw with Tim Bee’s campaign strategy, I don’t agree with them (Bee had plenty of money and name ID, so I don’t know how starting earlier would have helped), but I’m happy to see the guy actually engage in a sane argument.
But, his post reveals something of a problem in the Republican Party these days. Was Bee’s only problem that he started late, or did he lose because he was running against a savvy incumbent and against the general political mood? If Kelly’s supporters think that Bee’s problems could be attributed to minor strategic errors, or that people in what is, at best, an only mildly right of center district didn’t support him because he wasn’t enough of a doctrinaire conservative, it is hard to see how the guy will win.
You’d think the results of the 2006 and 2008 elections would convince them that Southern Arizona voters have a larger diversity of opinion than posters on our local conservative blogs.
Let me take you back to the press release about the Drudge Report. I understand that the ads are a plea for early dollars and Kelly would be smart to go to the most die-hard conservatives to get those early dollars. But, the tone of the press release is such that this is some sort of innovative outreach program. It isn’t outreach, instead, bragging about your presence on a right wing website with dwindling readership just serves as a perfect symbol for the Republican Party these days.
13 Comments
June 4th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I heard a radio interview with Kelly on some Tucson radio website. He came across very smug and arrogant and did not at all project the pragmatism that I expect people in District 8 are supportive of.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:58 am
This is the same mistake the GOP will make, yet again, in CD5. Schweikert and whoever else enters the primary will try to out-wingnut each other and the bloodied winner (probably Schweikert again) will emerge to take on Harry “Your Kindly Grandpa” Mitchell and get his posterior handed to him. Moderate Republicans could possibly beat Harry and Gabby but there aren’t any of those left in Arizona, at least not any who could get through a primary.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Tim Bee lost that race the day he filed. It had nothing to do with him or his abilities. He was outmatched by a superior campaign, superior politician, more money, and the wind at her back in terms of the political mood and the service she had done to voters. Anyone who challenges her now should be admired for doing his/her political best to support democracy. However, any hope of winning rests on either the mood shifting or her making an enormous set of mistakes (I didn’t say “a” mistake but set of them).
June 4th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
By the way, what is Tim doing now and does he have a political future? Any interest in other offices that have been reported?
June 4th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I think that Bee is heading up Jan Brewer’s Tucson office or something like that.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I agree with Donna. A Republican Candidate will not be able to pull an Obama. He or she will not be able to pander to the very conservative wing (in Obama’s case the far left) and then have enough time left in the general to return to the center.
Interesting comment made by a prominent Democrat. He was overheard saying that Gabby will not go after local donations because she virtually has no opponent in the CD-8 race. Instead, realizing there will be only so many donation dollars available, she will allow the local candidates to eat their share of the available local contributions which means, if true, there is hope for you Ted. This is almost as sad as it is laughable as most of Gabby’s money comes from Unions, out of state Indian casino’s and other special interest money.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I’m doing fine on money, Walt. Thanks for the concern.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Walt entirely mis-states Giffords funding sources; check out Open Secrets.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Wonder how much Kelly paid for the Drudge ads and how much he brought in.
June 4th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
no chance to win. Even if Obama is unpopular in the mid terms.
The GOP needs a real candidate to emerge if they expect to have a chance.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Walt…don’t you know that Gabby is (secretly) being funded by ACORN?!?
So is Ted. (shhh!!)
June 5th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Walt–do not make public claims about how people’s campaign’s are funded without properly researching first. Casino Industry donated a whopping 16,000 dollars out of 2.4 Million. That comes out to 0.67 percent. Unions were about 171,000 which reperesent 8%. Who gave you the information yuo discussed above? I think you got some bad information and you should review it.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:28 am
and one more thing. single individual donors represented the highest fraction of money raised.