Incumbent Congressman Loses Primary

The third incumbent Congressperson lost their primary this week, highlighting the hostility against incumbents. One of the country's most conservative representatives was ousted for a candidate who claimed to be even more conservative. Six-term Congressman from Utah's Third District Chris Cannon lost to former chief of staff to popular governor John Huntsman Jr., Jason Chaffetz who captured 60% of the vote.
Cannon had a cash lead and strong name identification. He also secured important conservative endorsements from The American Conservative Union and President Bush, who remains popular in Utah. But Chaffetz was able to paint Cannon as an insufficient conservative on issues like immigration. Chaffetz is likely to beat the Democratic nominee Bennion Spencer, a former television reporter.

Real Republicans Win in Maine!

Yesterday several states held primaries for House and Senate races. Common sense prevailed in Maine with Charlie Summers winning the GOP nomination for Maine’s First Congressional District.
Charlie is a real Republican with common sense solutions for some of our nation’s greatest challenges like healthcare and energy dependence. Charlie’s background in the armed forces as well as serving as State Senator gives him the experience and insight to be a great leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Charlie’s opponent was Dean Scontras who ran to the extreme right. He received the National Right to Life Endorsement. The results show how strong the moderate majority is in Maine: 59% Summers and 41% Scontras.
Charlie will face Democrat Chellie Pingree for the open seat in November. Though she will be a tough opponent, she is very liberal and the Summers Campaign knows that he more accurately reflects the people of Maine’s First District.
Senator Susan Collins who is a strong voice for the moderate majority in the U.S. Senate was also on the ballot. She faced no opposition. Representative Tom Allen won the Democratic nomination to challenge Collins. This will be a tough race for Collins but her record of common sense and the work she has done for the people of Maine will be tough for Allen to beat.

Tune in RealRepublicanMajority.org for more election updates.

Clinton Ends Her Primary Campaign

This Saturday, Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton formally ended her race for the Presidency and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, who is now the nominee for the Party. In her concession speech, Clinton spoke of her historical race and thanked her millions of supporters to loud cheers from the crowd. However, when she spoke of Obama and gave her endorsement, a mix cheers and boos rang out from the audience. This demonstrates the biggest problem currently facing the DNC and Senator Obama: the alienation of the 18 million Hillary voters. The Illinois Senator has currently kicked off a swing state tour following his Virginia rally to help attract the Clinton voters. There is still no word on whether or not Senator Obama will offer Senator Clinton the vice-presidential slot on his ticket as a peace offering to her supporters.

GOP Nominee Sen. John McCain is also working hard to start attracting the Clinton vote. On his new Campaign blog, his staffers congratulated Clinton on a historic campaign, and also posted a picture of McCain and Clinton together. McCain has voiced his respect for Senator Clinton and Obama.

In other news, moderate Republican Charlie Summers has his primary in Maine tomorrow for the 1st Congressional District. Charlie has recently returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq and has been working hard to reach out and turn out voters. Charlie is a real common-sense Republican, and we urge Maine voters to vote for Charlie Summers tomorrow in the primary.

Obama has Enough Delegates to be Nominee

The Democrats finally have their nominee- well, maybe. Senator Obama passed the 2,118delegate mark and essentially clinched the nomination. In a speech to her supporters last night, Clinton acknowledged that Obama has the delegates to be the Party nominee but never conceded. Her tone was threatening at times, "I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible." It is clear that she is holding out for something else. There is a flurry of speculation on whether or not the two will join on a ticket together. If she is not offered VP when will she concede? There doesn’t seem like an appropriate time. Does she wait until the convention?

GOP nominee John McCain officially kicked off his general campaign last night in Los Angeles against Obama. He said that Obama stands for the wrong type of change, one that has failed in the past. He continued that no matter who wins the election the country will change but that we have a choice between the right change and the wrong change.

In other primaries, former Rep. Dick Zimmer won the GOP nomination for New Jersey Senate race. He will now face incumbent Frank Lautenberg. Zimmer is a real Republican who is focused on returning the GOP to the core tenants of fiscal responsibility and limiting government intrusions in our lives.

Stay tuned to RealRepublicanMajority.org blog for up dates on all the election coverage.

Primaries in NJ and CA Today!

It is easy to forget about the all important races for the House and Senate when the media is so consumed with the Democratic Presidential nomination. New Jersey and California voters will go to the polls today to nominate their Party’s candidate. It is important that the real moderate majority participate in primaries so that GOP nominees better reflect the true intent of the Party. If moderates do not vote in primaries then we only have ourselves to blame when the nominees are extremist who put divisive social issues above all.

In other election news, today is the last Presidential primary taking place in Montana and South Dakota. Will the Democrats finally wrap it up? It is anybody’s guess. Clinton has a speech planned in New York which aides have described as a “farewell address”. Obama’s camp is synchronizing the endorsement of at least eight House and Senate superdelegates. All indications are pointing towards Obama being the Democratic nominee by the end of the week. However, Clinton continues to make the electability case to Party insiders. We will continue to monitor.

We will keep you posted on developments for all the primaries around the country.

DNC Makes Ruling on FL and MI

The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee reached an agreement on the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegations, which went against Party rules and moved up their primaries in hopes of having a greater presence in the nomination process. They were penalized by their Party (you said delegation, I was unsure), who revoked of their voting rights at the Convention. The Committee decided to be more lenient. The two states will be able to seat their delegation and each delegate will able to cast a half of vote.

The rule change has not drastically affected the delegate standing. Clinton still trails by 176 delegates while Obama is less then 50 shy of the new magical number of 2,118.

The other news in the Democratic primary race was Senator Clinton’s win in Puerto Rico. This was a rather lopsided victory in the mostly ceremonial primary. The final results were Clinton 62%, Obama 32%.

This is the last week of primaries in South Dakota and Montana. The week’s end could bring resolution to the Democratic nomination process. Insiders say that Clinton is poised to concede, but she continues to run ads in MT and SD that tout her lead in the popular vote. She still seems willing to take it all the way to the Convention and the Credentials Committee. It is easy to wonder if she is just holding out for a VP promise or another high profile administration position before she is willing to concede.