Palmetto state Tea Party Republicans should be supporting Ron Paul
Once upon a time not so long ago, South Carolina was considered the virtual heartland of the Tea Party as evidenced by the election of Nikki Haley as Governor in 2010.
Haley was the first woman and racial minority elected governor of South Carolina, one of the nation's most conservative states and ran a primary campaign so underfunded it had to sell yard signs at $5 each. A definite rising GOP star, Haley won on the back of the state’s extremely strong Tea Party movement and endorsement of Tea Party favorite daughter Gov. Sarah Palin.
Fast forward to today and Gov. Haley is one of the highest profile endorsers of Gov. Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination. But when she endorsed Romney in December the Twittersphere was full ofcries like “RINO” and “sellout.
Today, former Speaker Newt Gingrich is expected to announce with delight the endorsement of 100 South Carolina tea party supporters.
This comes as Texas Gov. Rick Perry announces his unsurprising withdrawal from the race and the news that Rick Santorum actually won (or drew) in Iowa usurping Mitt Romney’s boast that he was the first to win the two first-in-the nation votes for the GOP nod in decades.
Joe Dugan, chairman of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party says he sees Palmetto State voters heading toward former Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“My sense is there is a growing coalition behind Newt Gingrich,” he said. Dugan organized a state tea party convention last weekend that both Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum attended.
Dugan personally supports Gingrich and confirms the board of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party endorses the Newt’s campaign. He made it clear in an interview with The Daily Caller Wednesday that local tea partiers are no fans of frontrunner Mitt Romney.
“We don’t want somebody who is a moderate,” Dugan said, “that will try to compromise with Democrats to perpetuate the crises that we are encountering in this country.”
Fair enough but South Carolinian Tea Partiers endorsing Newt Gingrich?
In Gingrich's latest ads, he paints himself as the only alternative to "Massachusetts’s Moderate Mitt Romney," who despite consistently strong poll showings, has struggled to capture the full support of conservative voters.
South Carolina Republicans head to the polls this Saturday to nominate a presidential candidate. Recent polls show the race is increasingly becoming a two-man contest between Gingrich, a former speaker of the house, and Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and business executive, if you believe Mainstream Media reports and Newt Gingrich.
And it is true that ifany state would reject Romney's moderate style and history of supporting abortion rights and gun control, South Carolina would be near the top of that list. The state's congressional delegation includes some of the nation's most prominent Tea Party advocates: Sen. Jim DeMint and Reps. Trey Gowdy, Tim Scott and Joe “you lie! ”Wilson.
Yet, what of the real consistent conservative in the race? Texas Rep. Dr. Ron Paul, long and widely considered the real father of the Tea Party movement is ignored by the Republican Establishment and the Mainstream Media under the much chanted mantra that “he can’t win” against President Obama despite multiple myriad polls showing otherwise.
This week four state senators held a much ignored press conference endorsing Ron Paul including Sen. Tom Davis who is a rising star in the Palmetto state’s GOP circles and a highly regarded fiscal heavyweight who holds sway over many tea party activists.
At a packed Ron Paul event Sunday Sen. Davis said he has had the opportunity to meet the candidates first hand.
"At the end of the day, when I sat down, I realized there were a lot of good people running for this race," Davis said. "But there's only one person, there's only one person speaking to what I believe is the core problem of our country today. The biggest threat to our liberty comes from debt."
"There is only one candidate that is talking about this problem to the degree, at the scale and with the scope that it needs to be talked about. You can't nibble around the edges anymore," he said endorsing Ron Paul with fervor.
But one cannot mention South Carolina, the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement without talking about Senator Jim DeMint.
DeMint the heavyweight Tea Party icon said earlier in the week that the GOP “should listen to Ron Paul.”
DeMint endorsed Romney during the 2008 presidential primary campaign though is staying neutral this time despite taping a rather long segment on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s FreedomWatch program in which the main topic seemed to be Ron Paul’s attributes and libertarian policies. It seemed to be more than a tacit nod towards Paul without being a fully-fledged endorsement which all of the candidates coveted.
Tonight is the final debate before the primary vote Saturday and the CNN crew today will have to remove one the podiums with the departure of Gov. Rick Perry just as the Fox News Crew did Monday with Gov. Jon Huntsman’s announcement that he was continuing no longer.
With hours to go until the debate two new polls indicate that Mitt Romney's lead over Newt Gingrich is shrinking. According to a Politico survey released Thursday morning, 37% of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters say they are backing Romney, with 30% supporting Gingrich. The poll indicates Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at 11%, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at 10%, Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 4% (taken obviously before today’s announcement) and 8% undecided.
This leaves Romney, Gingrich (now with Perry’s support), Santorum and Paul desperate to make that crucial last minute impression during the debate and overcome the barrage of negative attacks that have dominated South Carolinian’s TV screens.
Despite officially losing Iowa today, Romney is still deemed the frontrunner and his rivals will no doubt go on the attack as they did at Monday’s debate when the former governor seemed to stumble a number of times making him less that the presidential apparent image he seeks to project.
The debate will give Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum one more chance to unify the so-called "non-Mitt" vote behind them.
A humble suggestion to Dr. Ron Paul: With more than 400,000 veterans, many of them living along the coast, and a substantial military presence in South Carolina, you know this is a potential voter gold mine for you. Please reiterate your support from the military – not the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned of – as evidenced by getting more donations from people who work in the military than either President Obama or any of the other Republican candidates put together. Drive this home to the families and friends of military and indeed a wider audience who are confused over your defense and military policies.
Back to the Tea Party.
It is evident that no one candidate throughout this Republican nomination process has been able to consolidate the support of the tea party movement with national polls showing no clear “tea party” person although a recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times show Romney and Gingrich effectively tied on support from a movement that was so influential in the midterms.
Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller says today that if that is changing, it was “symbolized Tuesday night when former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said on Fox News that if she was voting in the South Carolina primary, she would support Gingrich.”
Palin has somewhat reasoning for her Gingrich support in that he is not Romney and she wants to see the primary season go as long as possible but why not endorse the real Tea Party person in Ron Paul?
The influential and well-funded Tea Party Express’s strategist Sal Russo says that Gingrich seems to have the most buzz among tea party activists heading into South Carolina’s primary. But he said there still isn’t a tea party consensus candidate.
“We poll continuously to monitor our people, and they have bounced from candidate to candidate as the national polls have shown as well.”
“Each of the major candidates has taken the lead in our poll for a period of time. Right now it is a pretty close race with our people. Gingrich leads, followed by Romney, Paul and Santorum.”
Russo said, “We had thought there would be a developing tea party consensus after our September debate and tour, but obviously that has not happened.”
Also of the Tea Party Express, chairwoman Amy Kremer recently said the organization would endorse ahead of Saturday’s primary, but Russo said Wednesday that “our goal is still to endorse if a consensus begins to develop, but we haven’t seen it… yet.”
Russo said it’s possible they “will just be supportive of all of the candidates and keep our focus on the Senate and House for the time being.”
“The gratifying thing for us is that all of the remaining candidates have appealed to tea party voters and each of them has significant support,” he said. “So I consider it a victory if we have multiple acceptable candidates.”
There is only one acceptable Tea Party candidate South Carolina Tea Party Republicans and you know who he is.
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