Reason’s David Weigel provides some anecdotal evidence:
A bit earlier today I talked to Onzelo Markum, a Texas Republican strategist who’s working on the Chris Peden campaign, and he had a few caveats about how GOP voters might be breaking. One positive factor for Peden, he suggested, was that some voters were marking ballots for Ron Paul in the presidential race and choosing Peden in the House race. But another factor was really hurting Peden.
“One thing we’re hearing that we really didn’t expect is people going and voting in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton,” Markum said. “They come up to me and they say McCain can beat Hillary, but he can’t beat Obama. It’s fueled by guys like Rush Limbaugh, by Ann Coulter, who’re telling them to keep Hillary in this race, and that trickles down to Republicans going into those voting booths who can’t vote in our election. These were some voters we were counting on, so that’s thrown a bit of a kink in our extrapolations.”
And Rush Limbaugh is encouraging his listeners to vote for Hillary:
(CNN) – As Hillary Clinton battles to keep her presidential bid alive, she may be getting help from an unlikely source: conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh has been actively urging his Texas listeners to cross over and vote for Clinton in that state’s open primary Tuesday, arguing it helps the Republicans if the Democratic race remains unsettled for weeks to come.
“I want Hillary to stay in this…this is too good a soap opera,” Limbaugh told fellow conservative talk-show host Laura Ingraham on Fox News Friday. He reiterated the comments on his Monday show and replayed the exchange with Ingram.
He also said Clinton is more willing than the Republican National Committee and John McCain’s campaign to criticize Barack Obama.
“We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically. It’s obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it, they don’t have the stomach for it,” Limbaugh continued. “As you probably know we’re getting all kinds of memos from the RNC saying we’re not going to be critical. Mark McKinnon of McCain’s campaign said he’ll quit if they get critical over Obama. This is the presidency of the United States we’re talking about. I want our party to win I want the Democrats to lose.”
Whether it’s true or not, we shall see I suppose. I think, however, that this Republican belief that Hillary would be easier to beat in the fall could come back to bite them in the end.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:27 am
In Texas the Republicans always vote for the most likely to lose to a Republican in the General Election, they vote in the primary and not the caucus. The caucus is the real indicator as to who voted for real - for the Democrats to win - in Texas. The primary is always a rigged election. Get smart. No Republican will ever vote honestly for the Clintons, even a ton of Democrats hate them.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:49 am
I am a republican and I am voting for Clinton. I think she is the best one for the Job now.