Another Republican endorses Bob Smither

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Prominent Republican blogger and CEO of Redstate.com, Erick Erickson, is the latest to endorse Bob Smither. In his first post titled “I’m Jumping Ship”, he says:

Folks, you all know me. You know that my philosophy in guiding RedState has always been “conservative in the primary, Republican in the general.”

Well, today I’m jumping ship.

There’s a Libertarian down in Texas that I think we all should support. The Republicans down in TX-22 were, I guess, so shell shocked from losing Tom DeLay, that they found the person with the hardest name to spell and put her up as a write in candidate. She’s polling behind the Libertarian.

Friends, it’s time to help the Libertarian.

Besides, it’d be cool to have someone named “Smither” in Congress. We could all go around talking like Mr. Burns.

Later that morning Mr. Erickson published a second post praising Smither.

GOPProgress.com covered the story and appears to have endorsed Smither as well:

RedState’s Smither endorsement is somewhat of a surprise but is welcome news to Libertarians and libertarian-leaning Republicans. As cited in the post, Smither has publicly voiced support for a Republican Speaker of the House and would caucus with Republicans. Additionally, he has a better chance of winning than a “write-in candidate with a hard to write-in name,” a reference to the GOP’s write-in campaign for Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

For those unfamiliar with Smither, I direct you here.
Republicans should certainly feel comfortable voting for Smither- a fiscal conservative, supporter of individual liberties including gun rights, and a strong federalist. In the linked questionnaire, he calls himself an “alternative for the rest of us,” saying that changing the path of the country, which as caused people to look to Washington for answers, as his number one priority.

These endorsements are in addition to those already made by:

Bob Barr

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson

Patrick Dixon, City Councilor, Lago Vista, Texas

posted Oct 25th, 2006 by disinter
  • Derrick

    How much coverage is Smither getting in the local press?

  • Dave

    Great news! This is first year that I have followed the Libertarian party. It may be because of the internet, but it feels like there is a large jump in Libertarian activity this year. Am I imagining it? Is the internet playing a role in the increase? What is going on here?

  • disinter

    Derrick,

    Here is a recent article, with positive coverage:

    http://www.fortbendnow.com/opinion/2122/ducking-the-iraq-war-and-other-unimportant-issues

  • disinter

    Donations needed to help get these radio ads on the air:

    http://bobsmither.com/radiospots

    http://bobsmither.com/node/85

  • DAP

    Any updates on polling, etc?

  • disinter

    DAP – according to a recent email from Smither:

    Since Lampson’s numbers are expected to remain fairly stable, the key question for this race seems to be how the roughly 60 to 65 percent conservative portion of vote total is to be divided. An average of the last three published polls published on the race indicates:

    Nick Lampson
    39% (D)
    Bob Smither
    20% (L)
    Key Write-in Candidate
    12% (R)
    Undecided/Other
    29%

    The undecided group is very conservative and has voted Republican in recent elections. If he picks up the remaining undecided votes, Smither will not only beat Lampson, but will be within one point of a majority vote total.

    http://bobsmither.com/node/85

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    Dave, you’re not “imagining” the rise of the Libertarian Party. It’s for real. I can tell you as a 22-year libertarian activist, both within the LP and without, I’ve never seen the Libertarian Party more fired up, and more professional.

    I’m now a Republican, so I’m saying this from the vantage point of an unbiased observer.

    It’s like all of a sudden the LP has become political pros. A welcome development for the entire libertarian movement.

    My prediction:

    The Libertarian Party will have their best year in a long time, maybe ever in 2006.

    I’m just hoping, my party, the GOP pays some attention.

  • Getreal

    Caucus with the Republicans? That’s bad news in my opinion. It strikes me odd that just as the voters are repudiating the extreme statism of the Republican Party we have a slew of libertarian candidates acting like Republican wannabes. The Republican Party is the most statist of the parties we face today. It is evil and apologist for the Republicans should be repudiated as quickly as George Bush.

  • vforvandyke

    Eric Dondero: I’m glad you can be so positive. You’re right about the level of professionalism, since the Internet has played a huge role in levelling the playing field. However, as much as we’ve shown that we can run great candidates and campaigns, we’re still lagging pretty damn far behind because of a voting system that shuns third parties as spoilers. This is not going to change until we can put IRV initiatives on ballots across the land (it’s also a big win item that will gain the LP loads of media accolades in 2007 and 2008 if they take the lead and invite other third parties).

    I don’t think the GOP pays attention to the LP candidates other than to pick and choose messages to parrot. The greatest asset for us vs. the GOP is that they get our message out there then completely backpedal once elected. Voters notice this and it’s the root of what’s beginning to tear the GOP apart and cause a lot of infighting (fiscal conservatives vs social conservatives.

  • http://www.bloodymarybreakfast.blogspot.com Brock

    Comments on the second link at Redstate are great. I especially enjoyed the comment about the Libertarian (who is on the ballot) taking needed votes from the hyphenated Republican (who isn’t).

    Even better are the, “Yes, but if you exclude Smither and take a poll of 100 Republicans, she is actually polling AHEAD of the Democrat,” comments.

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Eric Dondero

    Stephen, the Republican Liberty Caucus is more organized and active than ever before. There’s a record number of libertarian candidates running on the GOP ticket this year. Yes, in some ways the GOP sucks. But they’ve welcomed us into their Party, and allowed our candidates to run on their ticket, (most glaringly in Vermont, New Hampshire and Florida).

    Also, some local Republicans have really stuck their neck out for Bob Smither in Houston, and risked their future political careers. There are good Republicans out there.

  • http://www.leonforliberty.com Texaslibertarian

    Real Clear Politics now has a link to Bob Smither on CD-22 page. Our efforts paid off! Thanks to all who helped out with this.

  • IanC

    Where’s Devious David & his dire predictions of Republican hatred of all things not Republican?

    We already have Dondero & his crooning of Libertarian = (mostly) Republican.

  • paulie

    I’ve never seen the Libertarian Party more fired up, and more professional.

    True, I’ve never seen the LP hit the pipe and whore out so much ever before.

  • Derrick

    IMHO, people need to back up off of Dondero. The guy is helping to recruit disaffected Republicans into the Libertarian camp. We need people like him to build bridges over which libertarian-leaning voters can walk. Dondero’s work should be applauded.

    I think the same concept applies to the political left, too. I’m glad to see Bruce Guthrie reaching out to Democrats and progressives in Washington State.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie

    We already have enough disaffected Republicans. They are preventing the successful recruitment of a much larger group of potential libertarians on the left/libertarian borderline.

    http://www.lpalabama.org/node/150

    Besides, Eric spends more time recruiting disaffected Republitarians into the NSGOP, for which I actually give him credit – I would much rather have them there than in the LP.

  • disinter

    Derrick,

    That would require a basic understanding of what it takes to get elected so that you can actually do something other than sit on HoT and bitch all day. Not gonna happen with these clowns. Thankfully, they aren’t running for office.

  • Derrick

    Mike, I think most of the complainers actually *don’t want* Libertarians to get elected. I think they just want to be part of a super-elite, super-small debating club, and snipe at people all day.

  • Timothy West

    Derrick,

    thats the truth.

  • http://www.lpalabama.org/blog/14 paulie

    I don’t know who you include in that club.

    I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get elected. Doesn’t mean I would want to do it.

    Getting elected is not the ultimate goal. The ulimate goal is getting the politicians off our backs.

    If getting elected helps accomplish that goal, get elected. If education helps accomplish it, educate. If debating helps understand what we want to achieve it and what the gameplan is, debate.

    If getting elected means you become just another tweedle dum politician….why bother?

    And what’s more, since I do know a thing or two about political reality, momentum, institutional barriers and dirty tricks, I know that putting on a suit and sounding a lot like a Demipublican is not enough to get elected or even come close.

    Smither has a better shot than most, and has an outside chance of pulling it off, due to extraordinary circumstances, but don’t kid yourself: he’s still a long shot.

    For this cycle, I’d rather see Speaker Pelosi.

  • disinter

    For this cycle, I’d rather see Speaker Pelosi.

    I’d rather see a Libertarian or two get elected, personally. But whatever floats your boat.

  • http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com Texaslibertarian (Eric)

    Here are the 5 founding members of “Republicans For Smither”

    Eric Dondero, Brazoria County
    Robert Booth, Houston
    Lonnie Brantley, Houston
    Forrest Aston, Clear Lake
    Gary Copeland, Stafford

    All five are well-known Republican activists in the Houston area, and Booth and Copeland are former GOP Precinct Committeemen.