Ralph Reed, And The Downfall of The Religious “Right”
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in ElectionsRalph Reed has done much for the Republicans, but eventually his ghosts came back to haunt him…
As a political operative Ralph Reed had a golden touch. Four years ago in Georgia, as chair of the Republican Party, he orchestrated the first GOP sweep of state government in 100 years, helping to knock out an incumbent U.S. senator in the process. In his heyday, as head of the national Christian Coalition, he solidified conservative family values into a formidable voting bloc that helped Republicans take over Congress in 1994, and along the way consulted with half a dozen presidential candidates.But as a candidate for public office himself, in this year’s race for Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Reed’s squeaky clean, boy-next-door image came back to haunt him. After starting out a year ago with a huge lead in both the polls and fundraising over his relatively unknown opponent, Reed’s connection to the Jack Abramoff congressional lobbying scandal unmasked the candidate who built his career on the issue of values as one who apparently had his own questionable values. And so it was that Tuesday Reed lost both his party and his religious conservative base in a humbling Republican primary defeat, losing by nearly 20 points to Casey Cagle, a state senator from Hall County.
All’s well…
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July 20th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Time hasn’t a clue. Reed lost because he was a national political operative, and folks down here wanted someone who had Georgia’s interests at heart, not some national agenda. Boy-next-door squeaky clean image? Maybe by NY/DC standards, but down here he had “slick, big city political operative” written all over him. Nobody from next door looks that clean and pressed down here in the heat and humidity. Abramoff wasn’t much of a factor at all. I can’t remember any mention of Abramoff outside of political ads. We just wanted our representative to represent us and not somebody else. Yeah, I know, radical stuff, at least by Time magazine standards.
July 20th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
According to The National Review Online’s blog The Corner Reed’s supporters are blaming the loss on John McCain:
“The Reed camp blames John McCain for playing payback for his 2000 primary defeat with a campaign of leaks, and the press, of course, was happy to pile on. “
July 20th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
I am a voter in Cobb County Georgia and I completely disagree with “BrianOfAtlanta”. It was TOTALLY about Reed’s Abramoff connections and the sick taste left in the mouth of many many disillusioned republican voters. That, along with cross-over dems with a venom towards his hypocritical oh-so-righteous demeanor… he was ripe for it and got what was coming.
July 21st, 2006 at 10:18 pm
I usually despair over the bias and ignorance of the Georgia electorate but this Reed rejection is an unexpected pick-me-up.
July 21st, 2006 at 11:03 pm
I do know that several groups that advocate publicly financed campaigns sank a decent sum of money into anti-Reed advertising that played up his connection to Abramoff including Public Campaign which I occassionally donate to.