What is going on here? Heitkamp is extremely vulnerable. Anybody from there?
These two guys are running in the R primary:
Kevin Cramer, U.S. Representative
Thomas O’Neill, former Mayor of Niagara
The Kochs don’t like either of them?
Oh, Americans for Prosperity.
For a minute there, I was blinking and going, “Wait, the Kochs bought Agence France Presse?”
You know… I intended to spell that out in the OP. I guess it slipped my mind.
Unless they’re trying to tie her to themselves in Democratic voters’ minds to sink Dem turnout. They have to know we hate their guts.
It’s not an awful political strategy. Even if the Democrats take the Senate, it is going to be by a very thin majority. An energy friendly senator, going on her second term, isn’t a bad idea to help the Kochs accomplish their political goals. Politics is the art of the possible and having Heitkamp and Manchin voting in the Koch brothers interests helps them accomplish their agenda. A Democratic senate with a one or two vote majority isn’t going to be passing a massive renewable energy bill.
A first term senator is usually politically useless. They can try to throw sand into the gears, they can grandstand, but ultimately they have no political power. Barack Obama was quite annoyed by the slow pace of the senate while he was there and that’s what ultimately caused him to run for president as a first term senator.
And Cramer’s new ad includes the line “we all like Heidi, but she’s wrong to oppose this tax cut.” Running on the universal likeability of your opponent is an…interesting strategy.
Trumps “tax cut” fever dream is making the baby drink the bath water, and then throwing them both out.
Maybe a case of hedging their bets in case Trumpism begins to collapse on the Republican party at some point. Simultaneously, it’s not clear exactly what direction the Republican party is going in and what values it stands for. I’m sure the Kochs never envisioned the day when many prominent Republicans, including the president himself, would be protectionists. Trump’s tendency to meddle in business based on nothing more than his own personal feelings is also probably a disturbing one for the Kochs.
I guess that’s my question. Are both guys in the R primary so Trumpy that the Kochs actually prefer Heitkamp? Or is something crazier going on? Is this some seven dimensional chess plot that ends with President Pence for example?
I could understand them sitting this one out, but actively supporting Heitkamp really has me flummoxed.
Heitkamp is one of the more moderate Democratic senators (not surprising, give her state) and is, with Joe Manchin, one of the Dem sens that the progressive left tends to criticize the most. The practical among us realize that there’s almost no way to do better in the Dakotas (or WV right now) but there’s a sizable segment who MIGHT be turned off by the Kochs playing up the fact that Heitkamp sometimes supports issues that they want to see supported.
I still say this is reverse psychology, attempting to turn the more leftish voters off of her.
I guess we’ll go with double reverse secret fakey jake. It doesn’t feel right, but until a better theory comes along, it’s the best we have.
Maybe they’re just sending a message to Trump.
Koch brothers launch aggressive campaign against Trump trade moves