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Young Guns: Cantor’s PAC of Loose Cannons

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 10th, 2012 at 03:16 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

One of the most perplexing organizations on the political scene this election cycle is the Young Guns Action Fund, started by two former aids to Eric Cantor.  It was started last fall in an effort to support “conservative candidates for elected office who hold true to the Young Guns movement.” One would expect a PAC affiliated with the House Majority Leader to get involved in numerous general election races to help preserve and grow the Republican majority.  Yet, this committee has only run independent expenditures in primaries, not in general elections.

Well, you might be thinking that there is a good reason to get involved in primaries.  After all, we need to ensure that the Republican nominee is a “conservative candidate.”  To that end, Young Guns has made the most bizarre choices of any political committee this cycle.

The affiliated-YG Network began the election cycle by putting out some independent expenditures for moderate Adam Kinzinger against the more conservative Don Manzullo in IL-16.  Then, they sent out mailers attacking Richard Mourdock and telling Democrats to vote for Dick Lugar.  Lugar was neither young, conservative, or a member of the House.  Following the Lugar folly, they have been involved in just one random race in North Carolina over the past few months.  Take a look at their FEC filings:

Source: FEC

They’ve spent $426,225 – more than they’ve spent the entire election cycle combined – against a random conservative named Scott Keadle in a primary!  What a bizarre use of campaign funds for a leadership-affiliated PAC.  They spend everything they have on negative ads against one conservative in a House primary.  What do they know that we don’t?

Do they believe that Scott Keadle is a RINO who will vote with Democrats like…say ..Dick Lugar?

The reality is that this race is neither random nor bizarre.  They realize that Scott Keadle is a bigger threat to them than any Democrat.  He is committed to rallying conservatives in Congress to support limited government initiatives that will never see the light of day with leadership.  Clearly, Young Guns perceives that threat and is desperately trying to prevent Keadle from winning the nomination.

Let’s help elect a true conservative gun and thwart the efforts of the loose cannons to install like-minded supporters of big government.

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  • warrior300

    What did you expect? It’s not like Cantor is a conservative. While concerning yourself with electing real conservatives in the primaries, the greater concern should be the strategy it is going to take to get Cantor removed from his House leadership position when the next Congress convenes.

    • http://boldcolor.blogspot.com/ Paula

      We saw candidates in Ohio (who were not young and were not conservatives) essentially buy their way in. The way to reach “Young Gun” status (now scrubbed from the website) was to reach certain (very top tier) fundraising goals. In one Ohio congressional district they ran a millionaire car dealer with no political experience, a terrible stage presence, and a face for radio. He ran a terrible campaign and the disastrous results were predictable. But, hey, he brought a boatload of money into the party and had a good time playing GOP candidate.

  • joydbrower

    when it comes to helping REAL Conservatives to get elected to Congress is not with Eric the RINO’s YG PAC, but with “the Power of Palin!” Sarah Palin has made several successful forays in the endorsement field so far this Primary season – and she’s emerged “Heads UP!” each time. Wise candidates – who are also “the real deal” – had the sense to solicit her endorsement; and if they met HER criteria, she jumped in with both feet – and all, so far, have come up Primary Election winners! How they’ll do in November is not quite as certain, but pols like Hatch should find the General Election a virtual cake walk.

    • dyarbrough

      The incumbent Democrat in NC-8, Larry Kissell, has always cast himself as something of a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” who is working to distance himself from Obama. His votes put him on the conservative side of the Democratic Party (i.e., not as far to the left as most) – making him less unpalatable to the independents.

      Richard Hudson, Keadle’s opponent, is a past chief of staff for Virginia Foxx (NC-5), who is hardly a RINO herself.

      Even with the redistricting NC-8 is not a safe Republican seat. Scott Keadle has the potential for overselling his conservatism and letting Kissell have the middle ground and hold his seat.

      We as conservatives need to remember Bill Buckley’s admonition to support the most conservative ELECTABLE candidate. While Keadle may be more palatable to conservatives from outside NC-8, we need to keep our eyes on the prize and go for the candidate who will continue to diminish Democratic power in the House.

      • edintexas

        If Keadle gets the Republican nomination, NC-8 would have a real Conservative running against a somewhat conservative Blue Dog Democrat. And if Hudson gets the Republican nomination, then no matter the outcome of the general election NC-8 will have a somewhat conservative Representative.

  • willik

    In up-state NY gave a Democrat the seat by splitting the Republican vote back in ’10.

    Coudl this be happening again, writ large?

    Is this the “marganilization” of the TEAs that Boehner trumpeted once he became the Speaker (put in largely by the TEAs)?

    Just another knife in our backs!!!

    Darn, and other appropriate expletives.

    • willik

      The first sentence should read: “Didn’t a TEA Party pretender in up-state New York give the Democrats a win by splitting the Republican vote?”

      (Can’t remember the district, sorry.)

      • edintexas

        NY 23 had a “Republican” nominee nominated by the party Chairmen to fill a vacant seat (occasioned by the current “Republican” Representative resigning his seat to take the job of Secretary of the Army in Dear Leader’s Administration). That is the system in NY, if there is a vacancy the party bosses get together to decide who will run in the special election. In NY there is the Republican Party and there is the Conservative Party. Generally Republicans get the nomination of both the Republican Party and the Conservative Party. In this case, the Republican nominee (with allegations of shenanigans in the decision making of the Party Chairs) did not get the nomination of the Conservative Party because she was too far to the Left.

        When it became obvious that the Republican (DeeDee Scozzafava) would not win the election, she waited until the last weekend before the election to announce that she was dropping out of the race, and encouraged her supporters to vote for the Democrat. She already had siphoned off some 5,000 absentee votes (IIRC), which could not be used against the Democrat and could not be used by the Conservative Party nominee. I don’t remember the exact margin the Democrat held over the Conservative candidate, but it was somewhere around the number of votes that Scozzafava denied the Conservative nominee by waiting to drop out after the absentee ballots were in (and encouraging her supporters to vote Democrat)

        Hope that helps you understand the dynamics of that particular race..

  • mikeymike143

    cantor’s ”young guns” PAC basically supports liberal establishment republicans against conservative republicans. hell, they supported lugar in indiana.