Liberal Democrats and the Republican establishment have disliked Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) mainly because of his staunch fiscal conservatism and his association with the Tea Party. Now, they may be colluding to try to oust him from his House seat by manipulating California’s “jungle primary” system in which the top-two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.
All three Democrats who were considering entering the race in California’s fourth congressional district decided not to the week before the filing deadline so a liberal Republican (Art Moore) who is backed by a former top aide to Arnold Schwarzenegger could.
McClintock told Breitbart News that his opponent was a “Manchurian candidate” and that liberal-backers “cleared the field” of Democrats so that Moore could have a chance. Rob Stutzman, a former top communications aide to Schwarzenneger, is running Moore’s campaign.
McClintock said that liberals could not win in his district with a liberal Democrat so they are running a “liberal Republican” to beat him in California’s top-two primary voting system.
Though “none of the Democrats have admitted to any coordination,” according to the Sacramento Bee, McClintock believes otherwise, saying that the “consultation, coordination is quite obvious.”
At the end of his speech for the Tea Party Caucus at last weekend’s California GOP convention, an audience member asked about his Republican primary challenge and McClintock said that “it’s not exactly a Republican challenge, it’s a mystery candidate… who actively coordinated, moving all of the Democrats out of the race.”
“It’s an individual that hasn’t even voted his entire life,” McClintock said. “He hasn’t even registered to vote until January when he was brought up here by a group of liberal consultants to try to manipulate this new elections process.”
McClintock is not taking the threat lightly, asking conservatives in Congress and his supporters to preserve one of their own. Because, as CalNewsRoom noted, two Republicans can make it to the November run-off in the jungle primary, McClintock will have to campaign until November in one of the reddest districts in the nation in which there are 66,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.
In an email to supporters, McClintock said he need the help of his supporters “like never before” because, “Coordinating with the Democrats, a well-funded liberal coalition is testing a new strategy to silence conservatives in California.
Saying that it was obvious “liberals want to entice enough Republicans to break off and join Democrats to elect a liberal Republican in a district that won’t elect a liberal Democrat,” McClintock asked supporters to “help me send a message that their scheme won’t work!”
He asked for help so his campaign could “put more boots on the ground to fight back against this attempt at a total liberal takeover” in what will be a “full-blown and expensive campaign right through to November.”
McClintock said the race “will determine whether conservatives will have any place left in California politics.”
“Let’s send a strong and emphatic message that we do!” he wrote.
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