EXTREME RIGHT WATCH: Sour grapes Republicans spin loss

Submitted by j on Tue, 2009-09-08 14:52

The special election in Iowa's HD90 didn't go quite the way Republicans anticipated. Before Sept. 1, Republicans were touting the rural house election as a prelude of great things to come, a resurgence of the party as a whole. Now they are grasping at straws to make their defeat seem like a victory.

Prior to the race, Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Matt Strawn was quoted as saying the special election was "pivotal", "a spring board" and would lead to "even more victories".

"The House Republican caucus looks forward to a successful election and welcoming [Republican candidate Stephan Burgmeier] to our ranks in September," House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen is quoted as saying on the Iowa Republican website in early August.

Extremist groups like the Iowa Family Policy Center and National Organization for Marriage went even further, NOM saying the HD90 race was its first battle in a plan to "Reclaim Iowa," and dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaign.

Now Republicans are backtracking, calling the loss a "symbolic victory" because they always considered winning a long shot. They are also launching childish personal attacks on the Iowa Republican website.

"Democrats should be sweating that this election was so close," Tim Albrecht, a Republican strategist and publisher of the conservative news aggregator TheBeanWalker.com, told the Iowa Independent. "I think the party showed it will invest in its candidates, and that will help candidate recruitment and fundraising."

But all the Republican spin misses an important point: While HD90 has traditionally elected Democrats, the races are very close. And even with all the money NOM and other groups poured into the election, their candidate lost.

"The bottom line is that if they can’t win in Democratic districts that are marginally competitive, like HD90, there is no way that they can retake the majority in the legislature or retake the governorship," Jeff Patch, a former press secretary for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, told the Iowa Independent.

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