First there were the Tea Parties in the summer and fall of 2009. Then there was Virginia where the conservative GOP candidates swept all three state-wide seats in the November 2009 General Election. And on the same day, New Jersey, where the GOP won in a state where anyone with an “R” beside their name is thought of as a hopeless cause.
Then there was NY-23 where conservatives and Tea Party activists showed the Republican Party and the NRCC that you cannot feed voters chicken manure and tell them it is chicken salad. The conservatives forced the Republican nominee into third place where she ultimately dropped out and endorsed the Democrat (who was to her right).
Of course, who could forget the kick in the gut of the Democrat party when Republican state legislator Scott Brown won a come-from-nowhere victory to win the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate. Not only becoming the first Republican to represent Massachusetts since Edward Brooke back in the 1970’s but winning by promising to be the 41st vote against government-controlled health care, the life-long dream of Senator Kennedy!
Next you have Florida where the NRSC-blessed candidacy of RINO Governor Charlie Crist has become virtually a sideshow as conservative former Speaker of the House Marco Rubio has trounced him in every straw poll taken around the state. Rubio went from 30 points behind Crist to leading him by ten points!
In California, conservative Representative Chuck DeVore has come from nowhere to be polling side-by-side with the moderate party favorite Carly Fiorina and just six points behind radical-liberal Senator Barbara Boxer who is seeking her fourth term in the Senate.
In Arizona, conservative former Congressman J.D. Hayworth is challenging the GOP’s moderate standard-bearer in the 2008 Presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain in the GOP primary. I was in Arizona last week and am told by insiders that McCain is taking the Hayworth challenge very seriously.
Last week I was also in Nevada visiting with political insiders where the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is polling very poorly and could easily be picked off by any one of three GOP candidates.
Just yesterday, one of the Senate’s most re-electable Democrats, Evan Byah, with $13 million cash on hand and a commanding lead in the polls, dropped out of the race moving Indiana from the “Solid Democrat” column to the “leaning Republican.” Former Senator Dan Coats is seeking the GOP nod and will be the likely winner regardless of who the Democrats nominate.
In Alabama, our client the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, the most strictly-Constitutional and conservative candidate in the race, is leading the party-favorite Bradley Byrne by a two-to-one margin in the polls.
I could go on and on. Bottom line… as I travel around the country I can feel that there is a wave washing across the country. It is not just a Republican wave but a conservative Republican wave. Possibly even an electoral Tsunami.
