Lee Fang on how Eric Cantors opponent beat him by calling out GOP corruption: “All of the investment banks, up in New York and DC, they should have gone to jail. That isn’t a quote from an Occupy Wall Street protester or Senator Elizabeth Warren. That’s a common campaign slogan repeated by Dave Brat, the Virginia college professor who scored one of the biggest political upsets in over a century by defeating Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary last night. The national media is buzzing about Brat’s victory, but for all of the wrong reasons. Did the tea party swoop in and help Brat, as many in the Democratic Party are suggesting? Actually, the Wall Street Journal reports no major tea party or anti-establishment GOP group spent funds to defeat Cantor. Did Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, lose because of his religion, as some have suggested? There’s no evidence so far of anti-Semitism during the campaign. Was Cantor caught flatfooted? Nope; Cantor’s campaign spent close to $1 million on the race and several outside advocacy groups, including the National Rifle Association, the National Realtors Association and the American Chemistry Council (a chemical industry lobbying association) came in and poured money into the district to defeat Brat. The New York Times claims that Brat focused his campaign primarily on immigration reform. Brat certainly made immigration a visible topic in his race, but Republic Report listened to several hours of Brat stump speeches and radio appearances and that issue came up far less often than what Brat called the main problem in government: corruption and cronyism. -Erika
Posted on: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:30:01 +0000
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