Keeping Score: Sarah Palin"s Winning Endorsements
21. Rick Perry for Texas Governor
A longtime incumbent, Perry was another of Palin's early endorsees, and his endorsement marked another instance in which Palin broke with the Tea Party. Perry beat back what many thought would be a much more compelling challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for the Republican nomination. With Palin's support (although he may not have needed it), Perry easily beat Hutchison and Tea Party candidate Debra Medina with 51 percent of the vote. Neither Hutchison nor Medina helped themselves very much (Medina's famous blunder on the Glenn Beck show, in which she indicated that the U.S. government may have been involved in 9/11, sunk her candidacy), but Perry ran a masterful campaign.
22. Allen West for the 22nd Congressional District of Florida
Palin and West, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, are both favorites of the Tea Party movement, so it was a no-brainer for Palin to endorse him. West is a decorated veteran of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and served as an adviser to the Afghan army. Of West, Palin observed, "Allen is a small government fiscal conservative running against a leftwing ideologue who’s marched to the beat of Nancy Pelosi on every issue from cap-and-tax to the stimulus, TARP, and, of course, Obamacare." West will challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Ron Klein on Nov. 2.
23. Michael Grimm for the 13th Congressional District of New York
Democratic Incumbent Rep. Michael McMahon is vulnerable, according to his Republican opponent Michael Grimm, and the former Deputy U.S. Marshall and FBI Special Agent has made a spirited campaign of it to say the least, accusing McMahon of using government resources for political purposes, as well as being on the wrong side of the issues. Palin had nothing but praise for Grimm when she backed him in July, saying, "This decorated Marine and Persian Gulf War veteran took on organized crime and Wall Street corruption as an undercover agent. As a current small business owner, Michael understands that real economic growth comes from the private sector, not government."
24. John Gomez for the Second Congressional District of New York
In the same Facebook post in which she endorsed Grimm, Palin also backed legal analyst and political commentator John Gomez for his New York race. After winning an uncontested primary, Gomez will face 10-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Steve Israel. With endorsements from conservative heavy hitters like Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich and Palin, Gomez has been Israel's toughest challenger ever, hitting the incumbent on the Ground Zero mosque and generally forcing Israel to go negative in a desperate attempt to hold on to his seat. Trouble is, Gomez is pretty clean as a small business owner, so Israel's negative attacks have all been lodged at the Republican Party, rather than his opponent. Look for this race to be highly competitive.
25. Kelly Ayotte for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire
Ayotte, a former New Hampshire Attorney General, is taking on Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes for the open seat being vacated by Sen. Judd Gregg, who is not seeking re-election. Hodes ran uncontested in the primary, but Ayotte distinguished herself nicely from a crowded field of candidates in the Republican primary. The momentum she gained from her victory has stuck with her, although it began to ebb steadily the closer 2010 midterms have become. She still holds a fairly solid five point lead, though earlier in the campaign it was as wide as double digits. Hodes has managed to out-raise Ayotte, but it's done him little good, as the traction seem to be favoring his opponent. Palin's endorsement gave Ayotte a big boost.
26. Ann Marie Buerkle for the 25th Congressional District of New York
Another one of Palin's uncontested endorsees, Buerkle has taken charge of this campaign, challenging freshman Democratic incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei on nearly every front despite his ability to outdistance her in the area of campaign fund-raising by a margin of more than 8 to 1. Shrewdly, Buerkle has made Maffei's campaign finances a hot-button political issue, saying, "That is an obscene amount of money. It really is why Washington is broken and why so many people in this district are upset. The people who live here get lost and are out of the equation because of all of the outside money involved.” Perhaps that's why Palin calls her a "commonsense constitutional conservative" who wants to "put our country on the right track."
27. Tim Scott for the First Congressional District of South Carolina
If elected, South Carolina state Rep. Tim Scott would be the first black Republican in more than 100 years to represent South Carolina in Congress, but that's not why Palin endorsed him. "Tim is a pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-development, Commonsense Conservative who’s been endorsed by the Club for Growth because of his solid commitment to the principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility," Palin said in her June 19 Facebook post. "He will represent the Palmetto State with distinction in DC ..." Scott will go up against weak opposition in one of the state's most Republican districts when he faces Democratic candidate Ben Frasier Jr, who has run for office -- unsuccessfully -- 18 times.
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