Thursday, November 4, 2010

Why Chris Dudley Lost, what I've wanted to say for Six Months!

WHY CHRIS DUDLEY LOST

I knew this day was coming and have held my tongue and played the good “team player” game. Well, being a “team player” didn’t sit well with me and now here we are.

All the way back in February and March of 2010, several people, very prominent in the Conservative movement and the Republican Party, met with Chris Dudley and his campaign staff.
These people spoke very clearly to Mr. Dudley. He was advised, urgently, to “get rid of those people”. Of course “those people” were the Gordon Smith insiders including Dan Lavey and Kerry Timchuck. Later, Brittany Brammel and LeRoy Coleman and other “outsiders”.

To their faces, they were told that they could not win this election, that Chris had to surround himself with Oregonians, and especially Oregonians who understand Oregon, not just the Portland Metro area. Chris was told during several long meetings, before the primary mind you, that he had a real chance to win if he listened now! Chris chose to go with the plan they had laid out for him and now we see the results.

Chris Dudley was a creation of Gordon Smith insiders who left Oregon after Gordon lost but came back to “create” another moderate candidate for office. Now, these same people will go back to D.C., with a little bit more money in their pocket, a little smudge against their pride but nothing else will change in their lives, yet they leave us in this mess!

The Libertarian (limited government) and Constitution (far right conservative) candidates each pulled more votes than the margin of victory for Kitzhaber. I had to explain on many occasion after the primary to my friends, family and radio listeners, that Dudley would be surrounded by good Republicans after the election and to take comfort in that. Why did I have to explain it that way? Because person after person was concerned about Dudley’s moderate to liberal stance on everything except fiscal issues. I am afraid that many of those same people either voted for the “other party” candidates or they left the Governor unchecked on their ballot.

We have tried again and again to win with moderate candidates from the Portland business crowd who promise solid fundraising. This year, we had the establishment GOP candidate, and he lost against the most complete insider, old way of government liberal in a year in which the entire Nation was in the midst of a true Conservative tidal wave of support, and they swept in limited government insurgent outsiders while we here in Oregon are left with Kitzhaber.

One thing that this election showed is that money alone will not win a statewide Republican race (same in California). It will take a good ground game with really energized folks. Those folks just could not “pull the lever” for Chris Dudley.

Instead of trying to please the middle, instead of trying to sound like you are not going to make any waves and play nice with the folks who have dug Oregon into this hole, what the Dudley campaign should have said is: “this State requires a complete makeover and I will be the one to do that even if it means only one term, I will stick to Conservative principles and will surround myself with strong Conservatives and I will not sleep until Oregon is the back in the condition it deserves to be in. That means that some old pictures are going to fall off of the wall.”

People will vote Republican if a Republican articulates a strong and exciting limited government message. A message delivered with a sense of commitment and passion.

Most of all, in the next gubernatorial primary, the Republicans should run a true Conservative, stop pandering to the Portland crowd and Republican voters should listen less to the folks with all the money and more to the candidates who run on a limited government message, and stay true to our Conservative ideals, the ones that made America a strong refuge.

13 comments:

Kevin G said...

Right on, Bill, thank you for saying it like it is (again)!

It was clear to this casual observer that GOP-liberal Gordon Smith's staff was working behind the scenes to come up with many plans having many points, so why didn't the state GOP executive committee (under the purvue of Bob Tiernan) vet Dudley before the primary??

Just his vote for Obama 2 years ago should've been enough to DQ him from running as a Repub in the primary, and no Right To Life endorsement at all? Item 1.6 of the party platform clearly declares that innocent life must be protected, "from conception to natural death."

Although MultCo didn't look good with their tardy numbers, Dudley could not have given away enough full college scholarships to win the hearts of true Oregonian conservatives, no matter how many illegal aliens he would blame Washington Deceit for allowing into our sovereign state.

Oregon's GOP needs to clean up its house and get it right.

Unknown said...

OOOhhhh-RA! Same thing as happened to McCain! I held my nose while voting for him - knowing he was little better than Obama, only a wolf in sheeps clothing. We need a REAL conservative candidate, who is not cowed by the loud-mouth liberals in Multnomah and Lane counties. A candidate who will STAND UP for what is RIGHT and CONSERVATIVE. I fear I shall never see this happen....

Kevin G said...
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Kevin G said...
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Dan said...

Good call, Bill. So many of us were saying the same thing when he got the primary. And over the last couple of days, a lot of political analysts were basically agreeing with you. They said that independent voters - who generally vote conservative - didn't really turn out to vote for Dudley.

Martha said...

OMH, you people are dense. Anyone who didn't vote for Dudley because he wasn't conservative enough should be hung up by their toes and flogged.

I guess you have no ability to grasp the concept of what it means to live in a blue state.

I suppose also, that what happened in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada went right over your collectively stupid heads.

Martha said...

OMH, you people are dense. Anyone who didn't vote for Dudley because he wasn't conservative enough should be hung up by their toes and flogged.

I guess you have no ability to grasp the concept of what it means to live in a blue state.

I suppose also, that what happened in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada went right over your collectively stupid heads.

Unknown said...

Bill you are so so correct,I held my nose and voted for him and tried to half halfheartedly promoted him but this too was my fear and it came true.
As far as the state GOP upper crust they were standing by him and offered zero help for the tea party republicans, in fact they were darn right rude to all republican tea party candidates and it is time to do some serious shaking up.
Mr G I agree that I sold my self once again for fear of getting a Democrat in office. I am planning on serving notice to the PCP meeting coming up that I will no longer do this.

Unknown said...

OMG, I am so glad I left Oregon and returned to the conservative South! The Oregon political scene is abysmal, particularly in the greater Portland metro area where many seem to have forgotten how to think and fend for themselves preferring the "nanny state" over self-determination.

ONEUNDER said...

Thanks for the post Bill, This TRULY was not a waste of AIR. I voted for Mr. Dudley, BUT was thinking this guy is going down. The MODERATE tag is not a winner for the GOP. We need to run a candidate that has TRUE conservative values. I would be willing to bet that would win in OREGON.

Bodie | group inc said...

As a Portland progressive I couldn't agree more. We pounded him on the "DC outsider" issue. The other issue is that he used DC production companies and DC media buyers.For the life of me I cannot understand why you didn't select Alley in the primary... he cleaned the floor with Dudley but it appeared the RGA had already 'selected' Dudley. Apparently they value 'tall' over experience.

I know several conservatives that didn't vote for Dudley. They feared he wasn't in any position to deal with the office he was attempting to get into.

And coming as someone from the left I found it amazingly funny that Alley was ostersized for being a RINO... yet as it turns out Dudley's wife is a Dem and they both voted for Obama. Alley would have never of done that.

The right has a gift for killing their chances everytime in the primaries... Personally I'm grateful for that.

Dudley had amazing amounts of money at his disposal, unfortunately for him out of state money is not a plus when running in this state, it's a negative. For the GOP to win here you need more of a grass roots candidate and not appear to be attempting to buy the office.

just my 2¢ from the idiot on the left ;o)

Mark W. McIntire said...

Bill, waiting six months helped Kitzhaber rather than helped Dudley. Speaking out strongly on the issues like Chris Christie does so well would have better served your audience and the people of Oregon. The party is not what is at stake here. The state of Oregon is of greater value than political affiliation or false triumphalism.

Thanks for your show and your work. I appreciate your voice in the marketplace of ideas.