From the Boston Globe:
…the threat of a primary challenge from conservatives — as well as the potential that national Tea Party groups will withhold financial support — appears to have grown, according to the movement’s activists. Brown’s votes in the past week follow his crucial support for the overhaul of financial regulations, which remains a particular sore point with conservatives.
“I think that there will be a primary challenge,’’ said Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. “There’s enough of an underground movement in the Tea Party movement as seeing him as not being conservative enough. There probably will be multiple people who attempt to run against him.’’…
At issue is Brown’s votes for the mis-begotten financial “reform” bill, as well as the absurd START treaty. The theory is that Brown may draw a primary challenger – who would probably lose, but would also weaken Brown for the general election. Additionally, even if a primary challenger fails to materialize there may be a drop off in monetary support and voter enthusiasm – things which will be crucial for Brown in heavily Democrat Massachusetts.
As for me, I’m not too concerned about this – we pretty much knew what we were getting when we backed Brown. He’s a Massachusetts Republican – and that means he’s going to be generally to the left of the GOP main stream. He’s made no votes that surprised me, other than backing START…and that I put down to him likely being over-awed by the military brass’ insistence that it was needed. One foolish vote, however, doesn’t get me writing people off…and I believe that holds true for most conservative voters.
The crucial time for Brown is coming – as the GOP takes over the House, it will be up to the Senate GOP to stand firm and force Reid to bring up House bills for a vote on the Senate floor. Naturally, Reid will try to corral enough Republicans to gain cloture on Democrat counter-proposals which will then be sent to the House, forcing the GOP to vote on Democrat issues. If Brown wants to both refurbish his center/right credentials and avoid a primary challenge, then his best option is to stand firm against what will be an orchestrated effort by Obama and Reid to force through items on the liberal agenda.
If Brown stands firm, he’ll be fine – if be cuts the GOP off at the knees, he’ll be primary toast. We’ll see how it comes out.
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