Thursday, November 8, 2007

Jindal Victory: A Strategic GOP Misstep?

This is a great article about not compromising one's conservative values in order to pander to the middle and set up a "big tent". Duncan Hunter is brought in at the end.

The election of Congressman Bobby Jindal (R.-LA) as Governor of Louisiana should stand as the defining picture of the current political landscape, and how it must be navigated by aspiring Republican candidates if they are to have ay hope of victory. In a state where, despite going “red” in the past two presidential elections, the Democrat Party machine has dominated to the point of being a political monopoly for decades (only two other Republicans have held the governor’s office since Reconstruction), Jindal won an overwhelming victory against a field of eleven opponents.

Like much of the rest of its state government, Louisiana’s electoral process operates on a far different basis than the other states. No primary elections are held. Instead, all candidates must face a general election “cattle call.” If no candidate receives a majority vote on the first round, the process is repeated among the top vote getters until somebody accrues greater than fifty percent of the vote.

In this melee of jockeying politicians, Jindal left his competition in the dust on the first round. But what bodes ill for establishment Republicans throughout the nation, and particularly in relation to the upcoming presidential race, is that he did so by pursuing a political course that runs diametrically opposed to their “conventional wisdom.”

(excerpt...see http://www.webcommentary.com/asp/ShowArticle.asp?id=adamoc&date=071107)

No comments: