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Local Primary pits pro and anti-gun Republicans
offeror
Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
I am delighted, and grateful, to report that President Bush has made himself available to shoot TV spots and provide cabinet member visits to Northeast Indiana to support Mark Souder, who is being challenged in the May 7 primary by a very liberal Republican contender, the former mayor of Fort Wayne Paul Helmke. Helmke was head of the city mayor's association and visited Washington a number of times while in office. He was an old Clinton school chum and seemed to be hanging out with the Sarah Brady crowd too. All in all, he's regarded here as a Democrat in Republican clothing, though he calls himself a middle-of-the-roader. Recently, the GOA sent both candidates a gun survey. Souder returned his survey and scored 100% in favor of Second Amendment issues. Helmke didn't bother to send his survey back.
All in all, the race was close enough to be worrisome. Helmke has a Clintonesque smoothness (and a pasted-on smile) and some think he won the TV debate. In any case, Bush's support one week before the primary could be any better news for the Souder re-election campaign. The commercial spot is great, Bush gives unqualified support and suggests Souder is a crucial member of the team.
Helmke is closed-minded as hell, and if he were to make it to Washington he would become a career politician and a loose cannon in terms of traditional Republican values. He would definitely have been a gun controller. I wrote him a long e-mail saying I wish I could have supported him, as a fellow Republican, and explaining to him why I've been writing letters to the editor to all the regional newspapers against his candidacy. Helmke now is saying that Bush's endorsement of Souder (and it is an official endorsement) was called for by "right wing" Republicans. Gee, I never thought of myself that way, but if a gun controller is a moderate Republican I guess I'm in the wings.
-- Life NRA Member
If dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
All in all, the race was close enough to be worrisome. Helmke has a Clintonesque smoothness (and a pasted-on smile) and some think he won the TV debate. In any case, Bush's support one week before the primary could be any better news for the Souder re-election campaign. The commercial spot is great, Bush gives unqualified support and suggests Souder is a crucial member of the team.
Helmke is closed-minded as hell, and if he were to make it to Washington he would become a career politician and a loose cannon in terms of traditional Republican values. He would definitely have been a gun controller. I wrote him a long e-mail saying I wish I could have supported him, as a fellow Republican, and explaining to him why I've been writing letters to the editor to all the regional newspapers against his candidacy. Helmke now is saying that Bush's endorsement of Souder (and it is an official endorsement) was called for by "right wing" Republicans. Gee, I never thought of myself that way, but if a gun controller is a moderate Republican I guess I'm in the wings.
-- Life NRA Member
If dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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