So Much for Tight Primary
Many in the blogosphere have had their gripes against Congressman Burton. Many have said that the Congressman’s opponent, John McGoff, was the person who could finally knock him off. I’ve laughed off those comments and it’s mostly due to my loyalty to the man who gave me my first job out of college and gave my career in politics a head start.
Well, apparently the Congressman isn’t in such a tight primary after all….according the The Hill that is:
With two of their colleagues falling in primary battles in recent weeks, a number of incumbent members of Congress facing their own primaries have received little support from leadership and colleagues when they might be more vulnerable than ever.
Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah) (side note from Josh here, but I’m surprised that Chris Canon isn’t receiving more support) have all received $5,000 or less from their leadership and negligible support from fellow members.
At the same time, others including Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) and Dan Burton (R-Ind.) have banked tens of thousands from leaders and members.
An expanded playing field that could include 80 seats in 2008 makes it harder for parties to spend resources on these primaries, and both campaign committees have policies of focusing on the general election and letting primaries play out.
Party leaders don’t see this as a tight race. And of course polls don’t show this to be a tight race either. But whether you like the Congressman or not (which is apparent that I do), can we all give a shout of praise that Dennis “the alien” Kucinich might not make it past his primary?! He’s great for a laugh and all, but he’s got to go for the good of the country.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Doesn’t the fact that they are giving him money mean that they DO think it’s a tight primary? Why would they give that much money to someone who didn’t need it?
February 27th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Jerry,
I’d agree with you except that Burton got all that cash early on - mostly over the summer (check his finance report) - when there was some media talk about McGoff. Once the poll came out, and the money dried up on McGoff, the media quit talking about him and this race dropped completely off the map. The Hill took those numbers from the Year-end reports.
Incidently, “The National Journal House Race Hotline” dropped this race from their list a couple months ago.
One thing you can say for Mr. Burton, like him or not, he’s got incredible constituent service and he’s a tenacious campaigner. I heard that he had a poll out in the field this month and the numbers are even stronger than the September poll.
The fact that the Leadership and other Members stepped up early and Burton’s campaign picked up a bunch of key endorsements probably took McGoff out of it before the end of the year. Pretty good work if you ask me. McGoff’s been reduced to throwing out anything he can find and hoping that it sticks to the wall. He just looks increasingly desperate now. Too bad, he might have had a future.
If you count how he screwed the Marion County GOP last year, along with the real smack-down he took in the SOS race, he’s a three time loser now and nobody’s going to take him seriously after this.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Let’s also understand here that because the Congressman has faced weak challengers in the past, the majority of the money he’s raised has gone to races to help Republicans across Indiana and the rest of the nation. Now those same people have done the same for him.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Congressman Burton is doing a great job. I can’t complain when he votes right, has great constituent service, and works hard to stay in touch with the district.
Besides, primaries are won on the right, and I don’t think that’s possible with Burton.