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Jaime Radtke to run for U.S. Senate in Virginia

By: bearingdrift (Diary)  |  December 28th, 2010 at 07:25 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Awesome and from the diaries by Erick

Former Chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Jamie Radtke, as speculated, has filed paperwork to run for U.S. Senate, reports WTVR in Richmond.

Radtke is currently leading our completely non-scientific candidates’ poll for the GOP nomination with 211 votes. Trailing closely behind her is former U.S. Senator George Allen, who has yet to file, but is expected to, with 208. No other candidate contends in the poll.

According to WTVR:

…she mailed in the papers on December 23, after gaining the support of family members and friends and raising some money from political backers.

When asked about the primary reason for her decision to run, the Moseley mom cited her three children, who she fears will suffer the fallout from a national debt that continues to balloon.


Also see Washington Wire from the Wall Street Journal

Image originally found at Sam Adams Alliance

Cross-posted at BearingDrift.com

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COMMENTS

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  • Sean (SIConservative)

    Is she an Angle/Buck/O’Donnell or Rubio/Toomey?

    • kinggold

      Which is why it’s incredibly premature to say this is “awesome.” Nearly every Tea Party candidate who imploded got into the race because they were “concerned for their family.” That’s all well and good, but before we designate this woman Virginia’s True Conservative, let’s wait a year or so.

      • carolina

        10:30 PM tues
        She sounds reasonable enough now……. says she has been involved fro 10 years.

        • carolina

          She learned a lot from that experience, no doubt.

          • wonkish1

            Is more telling than the Ron Paul statement.

          • Scope

            the event in Richmond where Ron Paul was a speaker. She invited him. I remember hearing at the time that Ron Paul didn’t commit to speaking until the last minute, and, she was thrilled that he was coming. That’s why there were supposedly 3,000 people at the event. He drew all of the VA Paulbots.

          • red_oakster

            2010 gave us a chance to set standards for candidates.

            Look at Ron Johnson or Rubio or Toomey or Mike Lee. Everyone of them offered a record of accomplishment. Not being a career politician is not in itself a qualification for anything. What has a person done in their life that suggests he would make an outstanding public servant? I’m not crazy about Rand Paul, but the man is an opthomologist. Buck and Dino Rossi may have lost, but they also were accomplished.

            Radtke looks like a mediocre choice and the association with Ron Paul reeks of base opportunism. Unless there is something outstanding about her that she is hiding from the world, this is exactly the sort of candidacy which should be rejected out of hand, not promoted.

          • Scope

            From what I’ve been reading around the web, as to the Radtke Senate seat announcement, I don’t think it’s going over to well. Here is a comment, apparently from someone who knows her-
            ———————
            JKM says:
            December 28, 2010 at 8:21 pm

            Jason,

            She was a receptionist for Governor Allen and later worked at VCAP.

            Before Mrs. Radtke ran VCAP (VA Conservative Action PAC) into the ground as their paid political director, she faced a subpoena for leaking a criminal indictment related to a Virginia State Senate race.

            After that, she bolted the GOP in her home of Chesterfield County in order to be the paid consultant on Marlene Durfee

          • wonkish1

            Now everybody that just called her a Paulbot, and walked away take note of Scope here. That is how you get the news out on someone.

            There is no way I could support someone after reading a post like this. I said we needed more information, and Scope found it. Thanks Scope.

            Let that post be an example to anyone that wants to get the information out on a new candidate. That is how you do it.

          • JSobieski

            and accuses folks to sounding and acting like leftists in criticizing Radke.

            What are we, sexists for not jumping on the Radke bandwagon?

            Would we prefer some marxist get elected instead??

            Isn’t Radke more qualified than Obama?

            etc etc

            I for one am glad that we are becoming a bit more skeptical of self described tea party “leaders”.

          • chihank

            Last night on Fox News, Radtke said Congress doesn’t need more career politicans. This was Radtke’s response to a question about George Allen being a primary opponent. If Radtke thinks George Allen to be a career politican, then Ron Paul is the ulitimate career politican.

          • wonkish1

            In 2006, George Allen was my #1 choice for the 2008 presidential election. I certainly hope that snipes at him actually aren’t in anyway rewarded.

            If you want to beat George than you are going to have to offer a more promising future than he can.

            Each little tidbit on that lady is causing me to dislike her more and more.

  • carolina

    As long as all of the conservative candidates compete via the repub party primary, I’m confident VA will come up with the best repub candidate for this Senate race.

    • http://redmeatconservative.blogspot.com/ dhorowitz3

      Hopefully, we will be able to sort this out in the primary. The point that should be noted is that we should not automatically run with open arms to George Allen as if he is our only hope. Allen is a good man and would be good to have in the Senate, but it is important that we don’t rely on old timers. Remember in Wisconsin when everyone felt that once Tommy Thompson pulled out of the race, we lost our last chance. It turned out that a new novice politician was able to come out of nowhere and put away the race two months before elections day.

      • Scope

        but, the field has not populated. There are some other potential candidates that have been mentioned, some very good, some not so good. The first candidate I will turn against is a Ron Paul supporter, which Radtke is. This may very well not be the year for George Allen, but, it isn’t a year that has good bodings for Paulites either. Let’s allow the contenders to come forward before we decide on anything.

        • smagar
          • Scope

            to find out where she stands on the issues, all of them. There is not the first bit of info anywhere about her positions. She very recently resigned from her Chairperson position of the Federation of VA Tea Party’s, most likely to run for the Senate seat. The only thing I could find was reference to a letter from the Federation, sent to the VA Congressional delegation asking them to demand that the Fed be audited, and that the government be put back on the gold standard. It was sent when Radtke was still Chair. VA Tea Party Patriots and the Federation of VA Tea Parties have no issues info on their websites. It’s as though they have no positions.

            http://politifact.com/virginia/statements/20…a-tea-party-says-dollar-has-lost-98-percent/

            Our local conservative talk show host has been talking about this issue, and about Radtke in particular. He made the comment just a short while ago that Radtke tried to claim dictatorial rule over the VA Tea Parties. He is asking that our local smaller Tea Party stay local, with local people. In other words, don’t join on with the big Tea Party groups that want to nationalize the Tea Parties. I don’t know this for certain, but, it appears that the Ron Paul Campaign 4 Liberty has folded into the Tea Party Patriots. We shall see.

        • wonkish1

          The sane Ron Paul supporter. I know they were seen as largely mythical creatures. I mean who could honestly be a sane person and be a Ron Paul supporter. Urban legend until his son ran. I’m content with Rand Paul *as senator*, his dad is nuts though.

          I guess, I’m waiting for more information to find out if Radtke is nuts or sane because I have been shown that not every Ron Paul supporter is as bat $@#! crazy as Ron is.

          We’ll see.

          P.S. We haven’t figured out yet if she was just being nice to Ron because he spoke at the same conference she was. Its possible she is only luke warm to the man, but was just being friendly. We just don’t know yet.

          • aesthete

            I rag on Paul and his supporters, but I’ve met enough in real life to know that they’re not all unhinged. Sure, there are a fair amount who think that the JOOOOOOOS are responsible for all that is wrong in America, but there are plenty of others who admire Paul’s stance on spending, immigration, and aspirational foreign policy.

            Note: this is in no way a recommendation of Ron Paul for any elected office.

          • wonkish1

            Kind of being a little satirical and exaggerative in calling “sane Paul supporters” almost mythical creatures. It was more about making the point than anything else–the people that could disregard someone because of 1 supportive comment about Ron Paul may believe that. There are a lot of people who hold Ron Paul in higher esteem than I do that I think are real assets to the movement.

            Also, I personally believe that Ron Paul is a good person to run the subcommittee on the Fed(mostly because of a lack of alternatives) that doesn’t make me a Ron Paul supporter.

          • aesthete

            We would have missed out on a great Tea Party candidate in Rand if we’d dismissed him outright. Heck, if I remember correctly, Palin had some nice things to say about Paul back in the day. I think that there were few enough role models for conservatives from 1996-2008 to cut them some slack on their role models: Ron Paul’s not even close to being perfect, but he does have the big plus of having been consistent in his beliefs during the Bush admin when so many others were not: that’s not heroic or enough to qualify him as Presidential timber (DeMint and Ryan are more my ken, tbh), but I can’t blame people for settling, esp if they don’t know anything about DeMint, Flake, or other CongressCritters who stood against “compassionate conservatism” consistently.

          • aesthete

            to hold off on the coronation, though: God knows we don’t need another fiasco like O’Donnell.

          • SirGladiator

            I was watching Fox last night, and saw her on there. Its obviously way too early to commit to any candidate, but I do like the fact that the Tea Party has an early representative in the VA Senate race. This is one of our best pickup opportunities in America, the Dem is especially weak. I don’t know anything about her stands on the issues other than what I heard last night, but as she is a Tea Party leader Im certainly hopeful, and reasonably optimistic, that she will be right on pretty much all the issues. Ultimately the question in VA is going to come down to do we want an Allen-Webb rematch or do we want to go with somebody new? I’m open to hearing all arguments on the subject, there’s a TON of time to decide, right now I’d say let’s sit back and watch, hear her take some solid stands on the issues, see how good she is on the stump, see if she can raise some money, and then compare her to Allen and make a decision.

        • chihank

          Since Radtke is a Paulbot, I wonder if she thinks Ron Paul to be the founder of the Tea Party Movement?

          Last year, I hoped the Tea Party rallies would inspire average citizens to run for office. Now the organizers of Tea Party rallies are moving to run for office. In Maine, there is talk of the ME chairman of the Tea Party Patriots, Andrew Ian Dodge, is considering challenging Snowe in the 2012 Senate primaries. Overall, I think its good that Tea Party activists are taking the next step in the political process. We the voters shall vet them.

          • wonkish1

            More information needed. That is it!

            I don’t know the answer to your question. If she is nuts like Ron Paul, you wont find me or many people on here that supports her.

            Currently, we don’t know much. More will come out.

    • Scope

      More times than not, when the field is large, and there are several candidates that could fit the description of conservative, and there is a moderate or two, the election most always goes to the moderate. Look at the VA 5th district primary race. There was much infighting between the 3-4 candidates that could be described as conservative. The fighting was very bloody between the conservatives, and, the most moderate won the primary. I actually believe that the smaller the field, the better. The Democrats never run big fields in any races that I am aware of. They have left, or far left, period. The Republicans would be much better off with fewer candidates, but, insuring those candidates are viable.

      • Scope

        that the conservative candidates votes were so spread out that no conservative could possibly win with the conservative split in votes. If many would get behind one or two conservatives, they would gain the majority of the votes, and, win against the moderate.

        • http://redmeatconservative.blogspot.com/ dhorowitz3

          Scope, that is a very salient point in electoral politics. I still remember the Tennessee Senatorial primary in 2006 in which we had a wide open shot to elect a solid conservative who would undoubtedly win in the general election in such a red trending state. We had two solid conservative in former Congressmen Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant. They tore each other apart and handed the nomination to Bob Corker. Yeah that Bob Corker!

        • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

          You can add at least Nevada this year to the list.

          This is exactly the thing that scares me the most about the ’12 POTUS primary. There will be at least half-dozen candidates and we’ll end up with the one who has the biggest theological following. It might be possible to avoid this in the various states – Utah has IMO the best system for nominating – but there’s not much we can do nationally.

      • carolina

        It reminds me of the discussion about Representative Districts getting too large, that we should have more representatives with smaller districts.

        At any rate, I still believe that the candidate with the best ideas for their constituents, will win the primary. I don’t know anything about the example you provide in VA’s 5th. However, ever since I voted against Reagan in my liberal idealistic youth, I have come to trust the electorate more than I trust my own specific limited beliefs. We each only know a little…….. and all of those ‘littles’ adds up to the best candidate overall for that time and place.

        • Scope

          that’s the problem. In the 5th district VA election, at least, we had at least a few fairly good conservative candidates. The vote was so split between them that none of the conservative candidates had a chance against the more moderate candidate. It really became a fight between who was considered the most conservative. I promise you, the winner did not have his constituients concerns in mind. He voted for the biggest tax increase in VA history, with a sitting Democrat Governor, that didn’t even ask for the amount that was passed. He voted for another tax that was overturned by the courts because it was considered taxation without representation. There were a few other bad votes as well, but, he won the primary. The only saving grace of his election was that he did beat Tom Liberal Perriello. Perriello was one of the 5 top Dems that were very vulnerable for 2012. Mickey Mouse could have unseated him. There was no reason to elect a moderate.

          • carolina

            You are making VA sound crazier than CA! I’m also a bit concerned that he might vote for dem tax hikes in Congress too.
            I guess it sounds like the conservatives got so busy shooting at each other that they let the tax hiker slide by. They should have all joined up and attacked him – instead of each other! (hmmm – is this an example of the repubs being the ‘stupid’ party?)

          • carolina

            You are making VA sound crazier than CA! I’m also a bit concerned that he might vote for dem tax hikes in Congress too.
            I guess it sounds like the conservatives got so busy shooting at each other that they let the tax hiker slide by. They should have all joined up and attacked him – instead of each other! (hmmm – is this an example of the repubs being the ‘stupid’ party?)

        • dforston

          She was just on On The Record on FNC and she didn’t seem like a nutty Paulbot to me. Came across as perfectly normal. She used to work for George Allen. I’m sure Allen wouldn’t hire a fringe activist to work in his office.

  • Scope

    http://www.suite101.com/content/ron-paul-to-open-virginia-tea-party-convention-in-richmond-a290562

    Her statement at the VA Tea Party Patriots gig this year- “Ron Paul is principled, fearless, and completely dedicated to preserving the Constitution and the fiscal soundness of America says Jamie Radtke.” Ron Paul was the opening speaker at the event. Enough said. No thank you very much.

    Local radio has been talking about the Tea Parties, and their role in local government in the last few days. It is widely agreed that the Tea Parties “must” and I repeat, “must” stay local. No one wants any of the Tea Party groups, who have joined with any national organizations, to interfer with the local Tea Parties. Radtke has joined with what appears to be a national effort to design and control the message.

    Bearingdrift, I have a question. Why did you come out, very early in the 5th district race, with you support of a candidate that had virtually no chance in the primary, or general If I am not mistaken, in a field of 6-7, she came in in last place in the general. Radtke doesn’t have much chance of winning much of anything.

    • kinggold

      It took only an hour to dredge up something unsavory about a lauded Tea Party Senate candidate. That’s a new record, I think. O’Donnell’s almanac of personal failures took a few days at least.

      • wonkish1

        nt

        • avgjo

          either way you look at her, it is good to start this early looking at candidates. That gives us time to better vet candidates and put together a support infrastructure for them, perhaps allowing us to avoid a lot of the mistakes of last time.

      • Scope

        Above, in a comment you say that no one knows much about this candidate, yet here you call her a “lauded Tea Party Senate candidate???

        It is fine that you write a somewhat neutral diary about an announced candidate, but, if you are the same guy over at BearingDrift, that wrote a diary about another potential candidate, Corey Stewart, you absolutely slammed him into the gutter, because of his strong position against illegal immigration here in VA. If you are that same person, you have claimed that states don’t have the right to approach the communities illegal problems, because you say it is a Federal issue. You claim that it is within your Catholic social teaching that we must protect and care for all of God’s children, and that we can’t send them all back home. In other words you are for amnesty. That sounded like a John McCain comment. Here’s the article. Others can judge for themselves what to think of your article-

        http://bearingdrift.com/2010/11/29/corey-stewart-ends-his-political-career/

        I honestly don’t know much about Corey Stewart, other than his tough position against illegals. His tremendous work on the issue has caused many illegals to self-deport, out of the county at least. The county has saved thousands, if not millions in taxpayer dollars with the decreased need for additional police, medical personnel, teachers, bilingual interpreters etc. Also, crime decreased significantly in that area. There are many reports out with those statistics.

        • penguin2

          We had several good conservative candidates, at least 3 out of 6-7 final field. And while, I personally liked Bert Mizusawa – who Bearing Drift endorsed in the primary (Bert Mizusawa), I disagreed with that endorsement. While an excellent individual, Mr. Mizusawa was not a current resident of VA-02; he and his wife both work in Northern Virginia, and their children are were/enrolled in the Fairfax school district. It was the principle of the thing, Mr. Bearing Drift, and saying something was not so, when it was, violated several principles. IMO, your site and editorials were certainly not geared to understanding VA -02. While knowing how much BD did not like Rigell (who did win back the seat from the Dems), Mr. Mizusawa, and let me say again, we liked him personally, had spent his childhood in Hampton, but came here to get a start politically, because it was much harder to do it in the Northern Virginian Congressional Districts. So, no, BD, people weren’t “lying” about Bert.
          Principles affects my perception on endorsements. I’m open to learning about any candidate, and would prefer to see some background and facts about the candidates and their stand on the issues. So, it is a wait and see.

  • fideist

    Not until I know more about her, in particular where she stands on social issues.