‘Freedom Caucus’ includes Virginians Brat and Morgan Griffith; here’s the list of 36

By Lynn R. Mitchell

With the turmoil on the Republican side of the aisle in the U.S. House of Representatives, questions have been asked about the 36 who are members of the “Freedom Caucus,” the tea party-inspired group that has stonewalled GOP leadership and demanded government shut-downs . Who are they?

Wikipedia has what is reported to be an accurate list of the 36 members that includes Dave Brat — no surprise there — but it also includes a name that I was not expecting to see: Morgan Griffith in the 9th Congressional District (see list here). I checked last week with his district representative for confirmation but did not receive a response.

Comstock, Brat districts like apples and oranges

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Conservative talk show host Mark Levin has come out with his “Liberty Scores” on two members of Virginia’s congressional delegation (don’t bother to click on the links unless you want to sign up for the publication to see how he ranked candidates).

Interestingly, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, the only woman in the Virginia delegation, is under attack from not only Levin but others on the right after taking office in January and already being threatened with a primary opponent.

Why?

Brat took $10,000 donation from Boehner, then voted against him

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Not only did Dave Brat vote for John Boeher before he voted against him (see Brat voted for Boehner before he voted against him), he also was happy to pocket the Speaker’s $10,000 donation to his campaign and then proceed to kick him in the teeth, so to speak, by not voting for him in Tuesday’s election for Speaker of the U.S. House. In my book, that raises some serious trust issues with this representative.

 

The 25 Republicans who voted against Boehner

By Lynn R. Mitchell

John Boehner (R-OH) was re-elected Tuesday as Speaker of the U.S. House of Reprsentatives. Many were glued to C-SPAN for the voice vote, waiting to see who would defect and who would support the Speaker. In the end, 25 Republicans voted for a wide variety of names that were not Boehner. Two of them were from Virginia:  Scott Rigell and Dave Brat.

The 25 are listed here in alphabetical order:

Brat voted for Boehner before he voted against him

Speaker John Boehner

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Virginia freshman Congressman Dave Brat (R-7th CD) authored a column in Monday’s Breitbart News that said he has no intentions of voting for John Boehner for Speaker of the House: “While I like Speaker Boehner personally, he will not have my support for Speaker.”

However, Mr. Brat already voted for John Boehner because the vote for Speaker took place in November and it was unanimous (see No, there’s no race for Speaker of the House by Brian Schoeneman at Bearing Drift):

The elections for the House Republican Leadership were held on November 13 in the Conference and there were no surprises. The Conference meeting included all of the new members, who were in town for orientation and these meetings.  The new members chose their Freshman Class representative, Congresswoman-elect Mimi Walters (R-CA), as well.

Here’s the press conference they held after the leadership elections.

Keep in mind what I already wrote: nobody ran against Boehner.

So Mr. Brat was for Mr. Boehner before he was against him.

Virginia delegation’s votes on $1.1 trillion bill

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The Virginia Congressional delegation’s votes on the $1.1 trillion spending bill:

In Favor (Yes): U.S. Reps. Scott Rigell (R-2nd), Randy Forbes (R-4th), Bob Goodlatte (R-6th), Frank Wolf (R-10th), Jim Moran (D-8th), Gerry Connolly (D-11th) and U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D).

Opposed (No): U.S. Reps. Rob Wittman (R-1st), Bobby Scott (D-3rd), Robert Hurt (R-5th), Dave Brat (R-7th), and Morgan Griffith (R-9th).

An Independent political perspective: Vote your conscience … but vote

By Daniel P. Cortez

Tomorrow brings the dawn of another election day. Another opportunity to send a message to candidates “the people choose so they may be better served.”

After the concession calls and victory speeches, political drama continues, hopefully, with new players. These men and women regardless of voter turnout become the people’s representatives. And the term is “representative” … not dictators. Granted many won’t get the message. But we can say later we knew them before they became omnipotent.

Mississippi GOP says no to McDaniel’s election challenge, Cuccinelli group funds McDaniel challenge

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Mississippi’s GOP has said no to Chris McDaniel’s request to question the result of the June 24 primary that declared U.S Senator Thad Cochran as the winner. Jane Timm writes at MSNBC (see Mississippi GOP won’t hear McDaniel election challenge):

“Our 52-member volunteer Republican State Executive Committee has been asked to spend just five hours listening to legal arguments and then overturn a United States Senate primary in which over 360,000 Mississippians cast votes,” Nosef said in a statement sent to msnbc. “It is neither prudent nor possible in a single day for any political committee to process and review the significant amount of complex evidence necessary to make such a decision, and attempting to do so would be prejudicial to both candidates.”

The candidate-who-cannot-let-it-go wants the Mississippi GOP to declare him the winner. But his chances look slim, according to election law expert Rick Hasen:

Breakdown of how Fred Gruber wanted to spend 7th Congressional District money

By Lynn R. Mitchell

As misinformation continues to circulate concerning the 7th Congressional District Committee’s disbursement of funds, perhaps it’s a good idea to look at it — again — and see what Gruber wanted to do with those funds and why the committee, with years of Republican volunteerism and leadership under its belt, voted to donate the money in more productive ways.

The correct information has been provided in many locations but there are those who are pushing their own narratives to cover personal agendas so here it is again, this time more in depth.

When the call for the June 7th District meeting went out, “budget” was on the agenda but no budget was provided pre-meeting by Gruber. The following information is provided from the Virginia GOP Now newsletter:

From Nancy Russell: This is how 7th Congressional District money was distributed

By Lynn R. Mitchell

From Madam Chairman Nancy Russell of the Hanover County Republican Committee in regards to the distribution of donations from the 7th Congressional District funds:

I know there are a whole host of comments circulating the web regarding Wednesday night’s 7th District meeting regarding the disposition of funds in 7th District Accounts. I have been a member of the committee since 2011 and have voted on disbursements each year. The 7th District has always had a large amount of money available due to the success of fund raising efforts to the Cantor Victory Fund. The large majority of the donations made to this fund were in the $10,000 range from donors outside of the 7th District.

GOP 7th Congressional District donates $$ to help statewide candidates

By Lynn R. Mitchell

After Wednesday night’s 7th Congressional District meeting, much misinformation has been circulating Virginia from those who disapproved of the actions taken by the majority of the committee.

The 7th under the leadership of former chairman Linwood Cobb, one of the most effective district chairmen in the state, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor was excellent at raising hundreds of thousands of dollars used to fund Republican candidates throughout the 7th and the rest of the Commonwealth. They were a team that helped grow the party and held two of the largest Republican events in the state each year with the Republican Roundup that drew thousands of attendees, and Eric Cantor’s annual breakfast that had 1,700 attending in 2014.

Mississippi … sounds like what Brat did in Virginia

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Thad Cochran’s win in Mississippi Tuesday sounds like Dave Brat’s win in Virginia … courting Democrats and others:

There is no Republican primary in Mississippi.

That’s because state law allows any Democrat who didn’t vote in the Democratic primary (which means most Democrats) to vote in the Republican primary…and they did. In fact, Sen. Thad Cochran vigorously pursued Democrat votes, and if anecdotal turnout figures are correct, he got them in numbers adequate to squelch the insurgent campaign of state Sen. McDaniel.

A big difference in the reactions of the two who lost, however. While Majority Leader Eric Cantor was gracious in losing and threw his support behind Brat, Chris McDaniel is refusing to concede and has threatened a recount. Politico wrote (see Defiant Chris McDaniel declines to concede in speech to reporters):

Poll: Cantor won among Republicans, lost among ‘others’ including Dems

By Lynn R. Mitchell

(See also Kurt Michael’s political cartoon, Evolution of the GOP.)

Congressman Eric Cantor was defeated in the June 10th Republican Primary by voters other than Republicans.

While the Congressman won past Republican primaries with a comfortable margin, he was beaten by a large turnout of first-time primary voters, Independents, and Democrats. The findings by McLaughlin and Associates help to confirm a Washington Post story by Democrat Brian Umana who claimed to work with tea party leaders to cultivate outside voters to defeat the Majority Leader (see Democrats help tea party down Eric Cantor).

While political pundits are still coming up with a dozen reasons why Cantor lost, the real story is in the numbers that tell a blunt truth that could come back to bite Republicans in future elections. Tea party members worked with Democrats and libertarians to solicit first-time voters and non-Republicans into an open Republican Primary to vote against the solid Republican candidate.

Update: More proof that Democrats crossed over … this from Virginia Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett: “Post primary polling shows Dave Brat won by 76 points (88-12) among primary voters that favor Obamacare. Cantor won 52-48 among others. Looks like the Democrats did do it after all. Good work 7th CD Dems!”

Cantor loss: It is time for voter registration by party

By Lynn R. Mitchell

If the June 10th Republican Primary in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District had involved only Republican voters, Eric Cantor would be continuing as Majority Leader (and possibly preparing to become Speaker), and Dave Brat would be planning fall classes at Randolph-Macon.

In a recent poll, Dave Brat lost among Republicans 51 percent to 49 percent but won among “other” voters 71 percent to 29 percent. Those non-Republican voters flipped the race and proved true a Washington Post piece written by a Democratic operative claiming to have coordinated with the tea party to defeat Eric Cantor (see Democrats help take down Eric Cantor).

Sabato Crystal Ball: ‘The House majority leader’s shocking loss is more an outlier than a harbinger’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Majority Leader Eric Cantor was dealt a surprising defeat Tuesday. The rise of the tea party? The fall of establishment?

No, say Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley at the Crystal Ball, headquarters of Dr. Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia’s resident politico (see Cantor’s Fall: The House majority leader’s shocking loss is more an outlier than a harbinger):