In addition to 2010 clearly being the Year of the Tea Party, a good sub-headline is the Year of the Sore Loser. The Republican establishment elites are angry because they keep losing campaigns. The latest example of a “Sore Loser” phenomena sweeping the country is in Alaska where Senator Lisa Murkowski (?-AK) is working on a desperation write in campaign for her seat in the Senate. Murkowski joins Congressman Mike Castle (R-DE), Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT), Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Governor Charlie Crist (I-FL) as politicians who just can’t accept the fact that the Republican Party has changed and they are not part of that change.
Ground Zero for sore losers today is in the state of Alaska. Joe Miller beat sitting Senator Murkowski in a primary a few weeks ago and the Anchorage Daily News is reporting that Lisa Murkowski is planning on running a write-in campaign for her seat. This is yet another example of an incumbent or party endorsed candidate not honorably dealing with a loss in a Republican primary.
Adn.com reports that:
Lisa Murkowski supporters are urging people to come out tonight for what’s being called a “campaign kick off,” although her campaign manager isn’t ready to say that she’s decided to run. Bonnie Jack, who was a Murkowski campaign elections observer for the count of absentee votes, sent out an email this morning. “Join us at the Kick-off of Senator Lisa’s campaign — with a theme of “write in her name in and fill in the oval.”
A similar situation is playing out in Delaware where Christine O’Donnell has beaten Republican Congressman Mike Castle. Castle is not accepting defeat and is refusing to endorse the Republican winner in the race for Delaware’s open Senate seat.
Newsweek reports:
Rep. Mike Castle made what may be the last headlines of his 45-year political career on Thursday afternoon, when he announced that he will not endorse Christine O’Donnell, who defeated him in Tuesday’s Senate Republican primary. That’s good news for Democrats. Castle is a popular figure in Delaware, having previously won statewide office as governor, and his endorsement would have been helpful to O’Donnell’s efforts at winning independent voters.
Castle and Murkowski are two moderate to liberal Republicans who are refusing to fall in behind the party candidate. These candidates lost because they are not conservatives, in a year when the party voters want strong conservative leaders. The Tea Party movement was critical in both the campaigns of O’Donnell and Miller, yet the party regulars seem to have disdain for the fact that the party endorsed candidates lost both these elections.
These two Sore Losers are not unique. They join Florida Governor Charlie Crist who quit the Republican party so he could run an independent campaign for Senate when it became obvious that Republican voters in Florida were ready to reject Crist for the Senate. Another member of the Sore Loser Caucus is Senator Robert Bennett of Utah who lost in the Utah Republican Caucuses earlier this year and didn’t even qualify for the ballot in the Utah Primary against Mike Lee. The Chairman of the Sore Loser Caucus clearly is Senator Arlen Specter who quit the Republican Party to join the Democrat race for his Senate seat before he was rejected by Pennsylvania Democrat voters.
The actions of Murkowski and Castle are an outrage and establishment Republicans better get the message soon. This is merely the first battle in the war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Senate and House Republican Leaders better shape up or ship out of leadership positions in both chambers. Furthermore, this is going to be a great Year of the Tea Party and the sore losers in the House and Senate who have been cast aside better get with the program or risk being disqualified from ever serving in office again.