For the most part, Ron Paul’s constituents have tolerated his more quixotic political views because he’s delivered for the district, now it seems that he might be in trouble:
Troubled by internal polls showing insurgent challenger Chris Peden having pulled ahead shockingly in the Texas 14th congressional district, Congressman Ron Paul will be pulling out of the Republican presidential race in advance of his home state’s March 4 primary, The FDH Lounge blog has learned. This news comes from a source with access to Paul’s congressional campaign and it parallels a recent move on the Democratic side of the White House run as fellow party establishment irritant Dennis Kucinich was forced to abandon his efforts in order to focus on a threat to his congressional seat.
While I ended up not supporting his Presidential run, it would be unfortunate if Ron Paul’s voice was missing from Congress considering how few true fiscal conservatives are left there.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Folks Doug Mataconis is a liar. While he was blogging at liberty papers he claimed to support Ron Paul and even replied to some of my comments and affirmed he supported Ron Paul. While it’s everyone right to support whom ever they wish it’s another matter to provide on posts affirmation that you support someone when he never did.
In my view you can’t trust Doug’s post because he is nothing but a troll.
I would suggest you spend your time reading other blogs and skip Doug’s post no matter where he posts his commets….
Doug, I always knew by your actions that you would never support Ron Paul. Folks Doug even made issues with Barry M support of Ron Paul.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Thought this blog was called “Below the Beltway” and not “Below the Belt”. Guess that’s what I get for thinking, eh? I’m outta here and I won’t be bothered coming back!
February 13th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
I know that you’ve never heard of him but Chris Mataconis will be returning to his job as pizza delivery boy to further his life long dream of being nothing. Oh by the way- I believe in free speech and running my jaws just to make a sound
February 13th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
WorldEarth,
What in the name of God are you talking about ?
February 14th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Selfish as it sounds, I hope Ron loses in Texas so he can come to Iowa and be one of our congressmen :]
February 20th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I hate to dash the spirits of what few Peden supporters exist out there, but the desperate propaganda being promoted by the Peden campaign is no where near reality. Peden is NOT leading Dr. Paul in this race. In fact, most voters still don’t even know who Peden is. How do I know this? Because I am Ron Paul’s campaign manager and I have personally overseen 4 different political surveys in District 14 in recent weeks. All 4 surveys have shown the same results: Ron Paul has a high favorable rating and high marks on his job approval. And if the election were held today, 60+ percent of the GOP voters say they would vote to reelect Ron Paul, while only 18-20% chose Peden. The remaining 20% or so say they are undecided or refuse to give an answer to these scientific and statistically accurate surveys.
For those who follow the Ron Paul congressional campaigns you will remember that Shane Sklar, Dr. Paul’s Democrat opponent pulled this same kind of deceptive game toward the end of his campaign last year, putting out press statements saying he had polls claiming his was tied with or even ahead of Ron Paul.
For example:
Burnt Orange Report::: TX-14: Shane Sklar Can Beat Ron Paul
Shane Sklar leads Ron Paul 54-30% in an informed Congressional vote.
And let me see now…Sklar got beat by Ron Paul by how much? This press clip may jog your memory of the election outcome…
Ron Paul …. defeated Democratic rancher Shane Sklar with 60 percent of the vote. …
So, those of you who believe Peden’s supposed lead in the polls should really place some bets on this one…BIG bets. And then when Peden, who is still virtually unknown to the voters and has almost no money in his campaign, (other than what he has loaned himself) loses the election and you lose a lot of money…then, maybe, reality might become a little more clear.
Just presenting the facts to help provide a little political reality check.
Oh, and BTW, Ron Paul can not and will not access money he has raised for his presidential race for use in his congressional campaign. It is not allowed under federal election rules. But then again, he doesn’t need to, because his congressional campaign has raised over $1 million dollars over the past two weeks. Check it out at:
http://www.RonPaulforCongress.com
In addition to our regular surveys, these number are verified by our voter ID calls to all CD14 GOP voters. Here’s the latest report.
NOT VOTING 166 5.4%
PAUL 1,887 61.3%
PEDEN 616 20.0%
UNDECIDED 410 13.3%
3,079 37.6%
Sincerely,
Mark Elam
Campaign Manager,
Committee to Reelect Ron Paul