Incumbent Members of Congress don’t lose, right? Certainly not their own party’s nomination, right? Well Rep. Wayne Gilchrist of Maryland, who was registered to vote as a Republican, liked to vote with House Democrats so much that he garnered a primary opponent in Andy Harris, a strong conservative. This primary challenge to Erlich was backed by, among others, former Maryland Governor Bob Erlich. The conservative Club for Growth weighed in heavily as well (to the tune of over $500,000!) — check out the ad below. Well to make a long story short, last night Maryland Republicans in Gilchrist’s district spoke loud and clear — tossing the liberal Republican out on his ear, and handing the GOP nomination to Harris.
This is a very positive thing because it shows that at the local level, Republicans want to send Representatives back to Washington who will stop the liberal agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts, not ones who will seek to work with her towards her goals.
For the most part, we have lived in a "weak party" system here in America. After all, take a country like Great Britain. There, political parties can actually "decline" to allow an incumbent to run for the nomination of their party. With tools like this, they are able to ensure that their party’s officeholder stay true to the principles and issues of their party. When an incumbent like Gilchrist is toppled (despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the unions I might add), it sends a loud message. A good message. Actions have consquences, and that when pushed hard enough, Republicans WILL police their own…
Which brings us back to California. Our own Republicans, by and large, are great team players. But there are some, you know the ones, who refuse to support across-the-board spending cuts, who are entrenched in the "favor factory" in D.C., supporting the egregious earmarks of others, and in turn getting their approved. Those folks should really take a lesson from Gilchrist’s defeat. Remember, no one forced you to run for office as a Republican, but if you are one, you have a responsibility to your party — which right now is to be part of process of reclaiming the mantle of fiscal conservatism. If you’re not on board with that plan, it’s time to look in the mirror, hard.
This kind of thing goes back to the question of what is the core mission of a political party. In the end, it is to see that the policies in which it believe become the policies of the land. Which is to say that the mission of the GOP is not electing Republicans to office. That is a means to an end. Or put another way, looking at the GOP Congress that was swept out in 2006, we lost our way as a party, no longer sticking to some of our important GOP policies when it came to spending. So now we have to regroup and work to recapture our own brand. This is done by a re-commitment by our party’s loyal elected officials, and, as we saw in Maryland last night, and occasional change in the roster.
Check out this hard-hitting CfG spot:
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