Radkte and other candidates excluded, primaries not yet held
Despite neither being the official nominee for U.S. Senate of his political party, former Virginia governors George Allen and Timothy M. Kaine squared off in a debate Wednesday as part of the Associated Press Day at the Capitol.
Tea partiers and their supporters were not happy. Understandably so.
Newt Gingrich.
What does the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives have to do with this? Quite a bit.
The Associated Press (AP) decided that this so-called ‘2012 marquee contest’ debate would require candidates to have averaged 15 percent or better in published primary polls and to have raised at least a quarter as much money as their party’s leading contender.
Given this arbitrary AP standard, Newt would not have been debating.
Remember the Ames, Iowa straw poll in which Congresswoman Michele Bachman narrowly beat out Congressional colleague Rep. Dr Ron Paul of Texas?
Guess what Newt polled?
2.28% - just behind former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney’s 3.36%
So to be clear, the AP would not have the two now Republican frontrunners for the presidential nomination debating. It should be remembered that Gov. Tim Pawlenty came in third before pulling out of the race the very next day.
Back to Richmond, Virginia.
U.S. Senate candidate and former Tea Party head Jamie Radtke has a right to be Tea-ed off that she was not invited to participate in the debate along with three other Republicans and two Democrats.
Mingling with Tea Party supporters from Roanoke to Newport News to Arlington on a rainy day outside the Capitol, U.S. Senate candidate said that the AP event was “politics as usual.”
Radtke said she was there to support the Tea Party who there to express their extreme disappointment with the process and with former governor and senator George Allen.
“They are outraged,” she said pointing to crowd some carrying the standard “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and hand-made signs.
“There are people who are not really paying attention to politics…they just open the paper and say ‘oh, there are the two candidates’, and this is the frustration the Tea Party has,” said Radtke.
“This is an elitist event,” said one protester holding a sign saying ‘disAssociated Press’ summing up the general feeling. “This is the mainstream media choosing who the candidates are.”
“We are protesting this establishment debate, which is being conducted prior to the conclusion of the primary season, because:
- It excludes primary candidates from both sides of the aisle. We firmly believe that this hinders the democratic process and the selection of good candidates. The establishment candidates (Tim Kaine and George Allen) both seem to approve this format because they are eliminating the good ideas that are challenging them from the grassroots within their parties.
- This debate also demonstrates that the AP is attempting to steer the narrative of who our candidates should be,” said the Tea Party protestors said in a statement.
“It is fundamentally unfair for the AP to pick only the two front-runners in the current polls to attend its candidate debate, at the exclusion of all other candidates. It is also unprecedented to conduct a general election debate before the primary elections have even been held.”
“Let the voters decide the election, not the media.”
The Virginia Republican Party has, after an outcry from the other GOP candidates, scheduled three open debates in April and May ahead of the June primary.
The Republican Party of Virginia make no secret that George Allen is their ‘favorite son’ for this election and that other Republican candidates such as the popular Radtke are little more than an annoyance.
Maybe it’s the grassroots members of the Republican Party in the commonwealth who are annoyed that the candidate has been virtually chosen for them.
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