There's been a great deal said on this site recently about a particular primary candidate, including some about his negatives, such as:
Congressional "career" spanning almost two decades
Voted for HR-3448 (Minimum Wage Increase Bill), which, in addition to increasing the minimum wage, also did a whole bunch of other messy things
Voted five times to raise the debt ceiling
Voted for the 2005 highway funding bill that included the infamous earmark for the Bridge to Nowhere
Voted for at least one very unpopular pro-gun control bill
Post-Congress employment has left him open to accusations of being a "Washington insider."
Is a current client of Strategic National
And I'll bet that you think you know who I'm talking about, but you might want to grab your notepad and follow me below the fold.
Strategic National is a full service political consulting firm with a wide range of experience. According to the firm's website, their mission is: "To empower grassroots activists and average citizens, so we can help good candidates revolutionize their neighborhoods, states, and nation, one campaign at a time." So far as I'm aware, they won't touch a democrat candidate's campaign with a twenty foot pole (except maybe to beat him with it), and they're reasonably selective within republican circles.
I think it's a fair statement that some of StratNat's past clients have indeed been stinkers, but others not so much (this client list is either public record or public knowledge):
Sharon Angle, 2010 senate candidate from Nevada
Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State
Scott Brown, Senator from Massachusetts
George W. Bush, former President of the United States
Brian Calley, Lieutenant Governor of Michigan (also ran his state house and state senate campaigns)
Mike Cox, former Michigan Attorney General
Kevin Elsenheimer, former Michigan House Minority Leader
The Genesis Code
Kevin Green, former Michigan House Minority Whip
Terri Lynn Land, former Michigan Secretary of State
Mitch Lyons, Michigan State University Board of Trustees
John McCain, 2008 presidential candidate
Andrea Fischer Newman, University of Michigan Board of Regents
Christine O'Donnell, 2010 senate candidate from Delaware
Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, 2010 congressional candidate (MI-09)
Andrew Richner, University of Michigan Board of Regents
Bobby Schostak, MIGOP Chairman
Bill Schuette, Attorney General of Michigan
Paul Scott, former Michigan State Representative
Rick Snyder, Governor of Michigan
Value For Michigan, a 2011 marketing effort supporting Governor Snyder's budget proposal and other efforts to reinvent Michigan
Roger Villere, 2010 primary candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
While there are several authors and commenters on this site (Corinthian Scales most notably) who have made a point of trashing candidates for no apparent reason other than that they're StratNat clients, I don't know that we'd have an issue with everyone on the current client list (all names confirmed with John Yob, CEO of StratNat):
Spencer Bachus, Congressman from Alabama (AL-06)
Justin Bernier, candidate for Congress (CT-05)
Herman Cain, former candidate for President of the United States
Newt Gingrich, candidate for President of the United States
Pete Hoekstra, candidate for Senator from Michigan
Josh Mandel, candidate for Senator from Ohio
Mike McAllister, candidate for Senator from Florida
Mark Neumann, candidate for Senator from Wisconsin
Sam Rohrer, candidate for Senator from Pennsylvania
Duane Sand, candidate for Senator from North Dakota
Rick Santorum, candidate for President of the United States
Jim Slezak, candidate for Congress (MI-05)
And no, that next-to-last bullet point is not a typo. Allow me to share with you an e-mail from Chuck Yob (founder of Strategic National), entitled "MI Leaders Endorse Santorum" (less the volunteer and contribution links):
Dear Conservative -
We are hereby endorsing Rick Santorum for President of the United States and asking you to join us on the Michigan for Santorum team.
Rick Santorum is the most conservative candidate in the race. He has been consistent on all major conservative issues including right to life, ObamaCare, and led on these issues in the United States Senate.
Rick Santorum is the most electable candidate in the race. He can unite the social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and national defense conservatives into a coalition that also appeals to Reagan Democrats. As a result, he currently polls as the best candidate to defeat Barack Obama.
Rick Santorum is competing in Michigan and asking for your votes whereas other candidates have chosen to skip the state. Although some conservatives may have liked Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum is the only conservative candidate who is asking for your votes in Michigan.
We urge all conservative voters, regardless of who they supported early in the process, to vote for Rick Santorum in the Michigan Republican Primary. He is the best candidate we can nominate for President of the United States, and greatly deserves our support.
I hope you will join us in endorsing Rick Santorum as the next President of the United States.
He will make us proud.
Sincerely,
Chuck Yob, former Republican National Committeeman
Jerry Zandstra, President of Pro-Life Federation of Michigan
So, Scales, that "useful idiots" comment? I suspect that'll have to be expanded to apply to Santorum as well (in addition to Snyder, McCain, Brown, Hoekstra, Gingrich, and Cain). By your reckoning that, "anything with John Yob's Strategic National name associated to it must be defeated," you've narrowed your voting options on Tuesday to Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. I suggest that you track down a large clothespin for your nose and decide which of the two will be represented by "heads" on that coin you'll be tossing in the voting booth.
More importantly, given that the list I led this article with is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to overlap on negatives between Hoekstra and Santorum (compare this list on Liberty Counsel Action or this list on World Net Daily to Hoekstra's record), I want to know what the logic is behind ignoring these negatives with regard to Santorum, but hammering Hoekstra for the same negatives. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, suggesting that either of these candidates be given a pass with regard to the negative marks on their record. What I am saying is that we should do our homework and not be imposing double standards on how we go about this, nor let it get personal.
