TEA Party-backed candidate: Hoekstra “can’t beat Debbie Stabenow”
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn late Thursday night announced that he is withdrawing from the August 7th Republican primary contest and endorsing Detroit charter school executive Clark Durant.
Glenn’s name will remain on the primary ballot, but he says he will spend the remaining weeks of the campaign urging his TEA Party-based grassroots organization to mobilize for Durant instead.
“To help save our country from the brink of bankruptcy, our highest priority must be defeating big-spending liberals like Debbie Stabenow,” Glenn said. “I’ve grown more convinced over the course of this campaign that because of the obvious vulnerability of his own big-bailout, big-debt, big-spending record, nine-term Congressman Pete Hoekstra can’t beat Stabenow.”
“Since Pete Hoekstra can’t beat Debbie Stabenow,” Glenn said, “my sense of duty requires me to step aside and assist the conservative candidate whose broad and growing range of support from all corners, financially and otherwise, makes him clearly more likely to defeat Congressman Hoekstra in August so we have a chance to defeat Sen. Stabenow in November. That’s clearly Clark Durant,” Glenn said.
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“Clark Durant has a lifelong history of advancing the conservative, Constitutional, limited government principles on which our nation was founded, from Hillsdale College to the Reagan White House to helping empower and equip inner-city students at Cornerstone Schools in Detroit to chase their own piece of the American dream,” Glenn said.
Because of the relationships he has developed with Detroit pastors and parents over 20 years of administering Cornerstone Schools, Durant will win substantially more support in Detroit than would Hoekstra or any other typical GOP establishment candidate, Glenn said.
Durant’s ability to take voters out of Stabenow’s own base will be a key factor in his ability to win the November general election, Glenn said.
Hoekstra, on the other hand, is vulnerable — because of his voting record — to losing support to Stabenow even among otherwise traditionally Republican and even conservative voters, he said.
“Unthinkable as it is, one of the most liberal senators in America could actually outflank Pete Hoekstra on the right, threatening to win votes out of our own base on both high-profile spending and cultural issues,” Glenn said.
Glenn cited Hoekstra’s vote for the $850 billion Wall Street bailout, which Stabenow voted against.
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“On the best known big-spending bailout vote of the last decade, one of the most liberal senators in America could legitimately run TV ads portraying herself as more conservative, more responsible with our tax dollars, than the Republican nominee, if that nominee is Pete Hoekstra,” Glenn said.
“If a liberal Democrat can take votes out of and prevent the Republican candidate from securing his own base, he cannot win,” Glenn said.
Glenn cited other elements of Hoekstra’s voting record he said will suppress essential support for Hoekstra’s candidacy among grassroots conservatives who do the work of persuading and turning out the vote on election day, specifically Hoekstra’s votes:
* For the $192 billion supplemental stimulus bill.
* For earmarks like the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.
* Five times to raise the federal debt ceiling, the last time to $11 trillion.
* For the Medicare prescription drug benefit, projected to leave a $15 trillion unfunded liability on future generations of American taxpayers.
Glenn also cited Hoekstra’s past campaign endorsements and funding by Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., and the Teamsters, Hoekstra’s past and current opposition to state and national Right to Work laws, depending on which office he was pursuing at the time.
He also cited Hoekstra’s joining Stabenow and then-Sen. Barack Obama in sponsoring a federal mandate that, had it passed, would have forced every state and local government in America to unionize its police, fire fighters, and paramedics.
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That bill would have given government employee union officials even more political power and money, he said, “funneling tens if not hundreds of millions more dues dollars into the pockets of AFSCME, SEIU, and Teamster union officials.”
Michigan Truth Squad, a group of current and former journalists, vetted Glenn’s news release criticizing Hoekstra’s support for that bill and found it “entirely accurate.” http://michigantruthsquad.com/gary-glenn-for-u-s-senate-campaign-press-release/
“That’s why Congressman Hoekstra is dodging debates, because he doesn’t want his big-bailout, big-debt, big-spending record further exposed,” Glenn said. “I’m confident Clark and those supporting him have the resources necessary to make sure voters are informed even fi Hoekstra continues to refuse to debate.”
Glenn said major national conservative organizations and political leaders who have remained neutral in the race as long as he and Durant were both actively contesting for the GOP nomination will — now that they’ve joined forces — enter the race on Durant’s behalf. He said those announcements will start next week.
In February, Glenn won the endorsement of Michigan 4 Conservative Senate, a statewide coalition of over 40 local TEA Party organizations that helped him gather more signatures than any other candidate on the nominating petitions required to appear on the August 7th ballot.
But Durant was the coalition’s second choice and won the support of several local TEA Party groups not affiliated with the statewide group, a fact Glenn said will make it easier to unify TEA Party activists statewide behind Durant’s candidacy.
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(Originally from the Gary Glenn for U.S. Senate campaign team)
Tagged with: 2012 Elections, Clark Durant, Gary Glenn, michigan, U.S. Senate
