Really, it’s starting ALREADY???
Now that Mike Rogers has declined to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Levin in 2014, the top contender is former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (though she has yet to file her paperwork.) Although she’s member of the Republican National Committee, she is not the first pick of most Republicans — and many of them have not had a problem saying so publicly — but she’s who they have for now.
Huffington Post reports that the website “LandForSenate.com” popped up recently. It’s no big surprise, given Rogers’ recent bowing out. What IS a surprise, however, is that the site redirects to Club For Growth, a virulently far-right, anti-tax group responsible for plowing heaps and piles of money into candidates that meet their strict definition of “conservative”.
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Whoever purchased the domain and set it up to redirect has kept themselves quite anonymous. HuffPo got statements from Club for Growth and the Land campaign and both say they had nothing to do with it. This leaves three potential explanations so far as I can see:
- A liberal or Dem group trying make Land look bad
- An opponent thinking of running for the GOP nomination trying to make her look bad
- The Club for Growth is lying through their teeth
I communicated with the campaign of Congressman Gary Peters, the leading Democratic Party contender. They assure me that his campaign had nothing to do with it. “Gary is focused on meeting with folks on his “Michigan First” statewide listening tour,” they told me.
Whoever is responsible, it’s a childish and anti-democratic act. This of course leads me to think it’s a Republican. That said, given the shenanigans that went on during the Republican 2012 primary with Democrats advocating for Dems to vote for Rick Santorum in the GOP primary, it could obviously be either party. I doubt Club for Growth is responsible. They’d likely take credit if they were.
Every election cycle my mantra is “it just gets worse every year”. Dirty tricks starting over sixteen months in advance of a Senate election certainly falls into that category.
Sheesh…
