Marco Rubio is the conservative Florida Republican running against Governor Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary. The D.C. crowd has already had a coronation for Crist, but, in Florida, Rubio has momentum and is closing the gap. Crist is too moderate for the modern day GOP.
In Missouri, something similar is happening. From a distance, Roy Blunt, the long-time GOP Congressman, is considered a shoo-in for his party's Senate nomination. But, he's got a hard-core Republican State Senator, Chuck Purgason, running against him. Blunt is trying to ignore Purgason. In fact, this weekend, Blunt failed to show up at a GOP event where Purgason was also speaking. No wonder, given Purgason's tough message about Blunt:
[Purgason] also asserted that some Republicans in Congress have contributed to the country's current money problems -- notably his unnamed primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.Yes, he was.
"My opponent was in (House) leadership when this occurred," Purgason said.
The pundits look at the anger among the GOP teabagger crowd and think it's aimed mostly at Democrats. But, as we're seeing in New York's 23rd CD, they're fighting among themselves more. It's the D.C. GOPers vs. the teabaggers up there -- and the teabaggers are wreaking havoc.
Which brings me back to Florida and Missouri. As noted above, Crist is in trouble with the GOP base for being a squishy moderate. After looking at Florida polls and straw polls of GOP activists, Senate Guru predicted Rubio will win the nomination.
It's not on the radar screen yet, but Missouri's GOP primary could be on a similar trajectory. Roy Blunt's problem is that he's become too-DC. That makes him part of the problem -- and subject to the wrath of the GOP base. Having dumped his wife for a high-powered D.C. lobbyist feeds that image of Blunt and doesn't help with the fundamentalists. Check out this diatribe against Blunt from a Missouri right wing radio host who was interviewing Michael Steele this past August:
“His [Matt Blunt’s] daddy [Roy] screwed around with a tobacco lobbyist. Then slips language into the homeland security bill favorable to the tobacco lobbyist. I mean here is a guy that has committed adultery multiple times. Yet he had a senior position, and still does, in the Republican Party. Guys like Papa Blunt make us sick to our stomach. They aren’t conservatives, and they sure don’t reflect moral absolute the way that we expect the Republican Party to stand upThat's what the GOP base is hearing in Missouri. Just this weekend, we learned from Fired Up! that Missouri teabaggers were telling Blunt that they were coming for him.
Keep an eye on this one. Purgason isn't raising a lot of money. But, he's building up grassroots support. And, he's unrelenting in his criticism of Blunt. In a low turnout primary that could be key. And, Missouri's primary is held in the middle of summer: August 3, 2010.
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