What the stunning election results mean for the Northern California GOP
Posted by Aaron Park on June 05, 2008 at 08:02 AM
There were two bellweather races in Northern California GOP politics that were decided tuesday.
There was the 4th Congressional District – a race watched nationally and the 3rd Assembly District – a race watched by insiders, whose impact is no less significant.
Dan Logue ran against Sue Horne for the 3rd AD
Tom McClintock ran against Doug Ose for the 4th CD
Both races effectively pitted Doug LaMalfa / Establishment against Rick Keene / Sam Aanestad / Ted Gaines / Conservative activists.
If you looked from afar – you saw Sue Horne and Doug Ose’s huge endorsement lists. Establishment types lined up behind both candidates.
As the campaigns kicked off – it became apparent that Both Horne and Doug Ose were attempting to hide behind their endorsement lists. Once both were starting to get outed for the liberals that they are – then the gloves came off.
The only reason why Sue Horne did not spend an estimated $4.5 million assassinating Dan Logue’s character was that she didn’t have the means to write herself the checks to do so.
Ose did. Even with polling data showing a month out that he was down 30 points – Ose continued to pour money into his race (some $1.5million after the poll was leaked)
Horne, for her part – continued rolling out eatablishment endorsements well into her race and spent what little money she had on unbelievably nasty hit mailers.
Both Horne and Ose’s campaigns activated the Conservative base – earning them both Censures from local Republican organizations / Central Committees.
Logue won by 9.5% and McClintock won by 15%
The Logue v Horne race was seen as a proxy fight between Rick Keene and Doug LaMalfa – round one, Rick Keene.
The McClintock v Ose race was seen by observers all across the country as a referendum on the future direction of the Republican Party.
Logue and McClintock’s races proved that Principle does indeed win on the battlefield against the establishment.
The NRCC and the nimrods in Washington D.C. will do well to open their eyes and realize that:
Ose had the insiders lining up his endorsement list
Ose spent $4.5 Million – a primary record
McClintock had the activists and a few core Conservatives
McClintock spent $1.1 Million – 1/4 what Ose spent
David truely slew Goliath.
When the chips were down – Dan Logue was on the right side. Rick Keene, Sam Aanestad and Ted Gaines established the standard for Northern California.
The big loser was the establishment.
Comments
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Look, I am right there with you on the McClintock / Ose race.
Your analysis of the Horne / Logue race is disingenuous at BEST Aaron. You are better than this!
It takes a complete assassination of the English language (or even common colloquial understanding) to try and maintain that that was a race between the “establishment” candidate vs. the long shot conservative.
What a joke. This is intellectually dishonest and you know it Aaron!
Both of these candidates had big “establishment” names supporting them, and in the end Dan won. So lets put away the false drama, at least concerning that race.
You are dead on in your analysis of the McClintock / Ose race. That was truly a sort of referendum on conservative principles, and the good guy definitely won!
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