GOP Watch: "Regular Republicans" top the Trumpers

Saturday GOP showdown in Oregon.

    "This really is an existential-level decision time. There is a broad, solid line between your two options, and you must choose."

      Sam Carpenter, candidate for GOP chair.

Currier 82--Carpenter 39

Bill Currier, incumbent GOP chair, won.

The Sam Carpenter Trump-style insurgency lost.

Sam Carpenter calls the people leading the Oregon GOP the "Ruling Class." They didn't support his own campaign for Governor and they don't give Trump wholehearted personal and political support, he said. He wanted to replace them. 

Carpenter had told me he was pretty sure he would win, but didn't want to jinx things by being overconfident. He said he had the support of the Precinct Committee delegates who would elect the officers of the Republican Party, as made perfect sense. After all, ninety percent of Republicans agree with me, he said. Real Republicans are conservative. Pro life. Pro wall. Pro Trump. 

What in the world was Knute Buehler, the Republican candidate for Governor thinking, Carpenter asked me incredulously, when Buehler attended a Portland Gay Pride parade prior to the election? It was a slap in the face to Republican voters, he said. And why nominate a pro-choice Republican?

The answer: they were thinking "the middle," Carpenter said, and there is no middle, as he has said on Facebook, in his book, and in speeches. Republicans win by voicing a populist, social conservative message, along with personal support for Donald Trump. He told a hundred people at a conference two weeks ago: 

      "I'm not middle of he road. If I go across the middle of the road it's to slap someone."

GOP Facebook

The Oregon GOP announced the results of the Saturday election.  They won.

Currier had outlined a proposed path to victory by winning moderates. Step one, Currier said at the Lake Oswego Western Liberty Conference, was to let the Democrats hang themselves with over-reach. They have super-majorities and they have a liberal governor, so they will pass legislation that appeals to their Portland progressive base, but turns off the middle. Then, Republicans will campaign against the documented extremism of Democrats and win elections. 

Their communication director, Kevin Hoar, reiterated this policy in the aftermath of the GOP leadership victory. OPB reported he said Democrats:

     "seem to have lost their way as far as policies that are the kind that appeal to this large number of voters in the middle who are concerned about their quality of life and are struggling with all the increases and costs they are facing."

https://www.facebook.com/samcarpenter

Meanwhile, both Carpenter and the winning GOP incumbents are posting on social media. The GOP leadership team is celebrating. Carpenter's message hasn't changed.

Carpenter still has up his appeal to GOP delegates, to nominate people who adopt conservative platform positions and support the president. He has links to the Daily Caller and photos of Trump belittling O'Rourke's crowds and all-cap posts from friends offering sympathy for his loss: "THOSE REPROBATES MADE A HORRIBLE MISTAKE TODAY BUY NOT VOTING YOU AS THE NEXT CHAIRMAN!!"  

Other links liken Carpenter's movement to a crusade wielding a "terrible swift sword." They are "Trumpsaders."

Battle for the bases.

Carpenter said that Republicans win by sounding like Trump. The Republican Party just chose the opposite strategy, figuring Democrats can beat those Trump-sounding candidates. Instead, let Democrats be the crusading extremists.

The legislature is in session. Some Senate Democrats are unhappy with Peter Courtney, who has insisted that legislation have some Republican support in order to come to the Senate floor. Some Democrats say why? We have a majority, so we should use it. 

A GOP strategy may be unfolding that i would liken to a "draw play" in football. Let the opposition briefly win easily, with the defensive line pushing quickly through a porous offense, only to find themselves on the wrong side of the football. Don't create a sharp Republican contrast. 

That is the strategy Bill Currier announced, and he won handily. Make future elections a referendum on Democrats, not Trump. The more extreme they are, the easier to beat.