The Senate Democatic Campaign staff is delighted to spread the word about Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s difficulties with the tea party organizations in Michigan.
According to the MIRS newsletter, Hoekstra, the GOP frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, has skipped two Senate debates with his Republican competitors that were sponsored by tea party groups. Those decisions did not go over well.
“We understand that he can’t go to everything. When two guys are at a coffee shop, he can’t drive four hours to do that,” Cindy Gramat, founder of Plainwell Patriots, told MIRS. “But ours are meetings of 30 to hundreds of voters. We’re concerned that if he won’t talk to us before he’s in office, how willing will he be to talk to us after?”
Hoekstra spokeswoman Brittany Gross said he “unfortunately” won’t be attending two Senate campaign events this month due to scheduling conflicts. She said the former congressman from Holland will be doing an event in January with the Plainwell Patriots, which is sponsoring a debate on Saturday.
Hoekstra was never well-received by the tea party groups in last year’s gubernatorial contest and it appears his voting record in the House is still a hurdle he must cross.
At a tea party debate in DeWitt in September, five other candidates ganged up on him over his past votes on economic and social issues. At that event, ultraconservative Gary Glenn, leader of the American Family Association of Michigan, won a straw poll.
“Pete didn’t like the results the one time he came out to play so he hasn’t come back,” Glenn told MIRS. “He’s decided that he’s not capable of defending his record of voting to raise the debt ceiling and to support the Brady Bill, not to mention his long opposition to right to work.”
Hoekstra was never well-received by the tea party groups in last year’s gubernatorial contest and it appears his voting record in the House is still a hurdle he must cross.
At a tea party debate in DeWitt in September, five other candidates ganged up on him over his past votes on economic and social issues. At that event, ultraconservative Gary Glenn, leader of the American Family Association of Michigan, won a straw poll.
“Pete didn’t like the results the one time he came out to play so he hasn’t come back,” Glenn told MIRS. “He’s decided that he’s not capable of defending his record of voting to raise the debt ceiling and to support the Brady Bill, not to mention his long opposition to right to work.”
I suspect Glenn, without realizing it, has become best buddies with the staffers at Democratic headquarters.
