Vance McAllister upsets Neil Riser in Louisiana House runoff (GOP-e candidate loses)
Politico | 11/16/13 | ALEX ISENSTADT
Businessman Vance McAllister has won the special runoff election for a vacant northeast Louisiana congressional seat, notching an upset win over fellow Republican Neil Riser, according to the Associated Press.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, McAllister, a political newcomer, led Riser, a state senator who had won the support of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and much of the state’s GOP congressional delegation, 59.7 percent to 40.3 percent.
McAllister will succeed former GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander, who resigned in August to take a job in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration after spending more than a decade in the House.
Riser entered the runoff as the favorite, having finished more than 12 percentage points ahead of McAllister in October’s crowded primary.
Running in an impoverished part of the state, McAllister competed aggressively for blue-collar voters. During the closing days of the race he aired a TV ad spotlighting an endorsement from Willie Robertson, a star in the popular A&E reality series “Duck Dynasty,” which is about a family-run duck-call business. And late in the race, McAllister gambled big by tacking to the left and expressing support for certain planks of Obamacare – a move designed to win over low-income voters and Democrats, who were allowed to vote in the primary and runoff.
In a conservative district where Mitt Romney won more than 60 percent of the vote, McAllister’s soft line on Obamacare was a risky one. Riser - who made the law’s repeal a central campaign plank - clobbered his opponent on the issue, saying it was evidence that he was insufficiently conservative.
It would appear Riser may have been correct and Willie backed the wrong pony. From "Red State" today:
Now, in McAllister’s case, indeed his voting record is also part of the equation. He has never even pretended to be a conservative. From day one, he made it clear that Obamacare is here to stay and that he would oppose any efforts to defund it. He passionately supports the Medicaid expansion, which has now created a population of people dependent upon subpar government care larger than the population of the U.K.
He was barely sworn in as a new member before he announced his support for full amnesty and citizenship for illegal aliens, even as Obama continues to break our borders and engender a new wave of illegal immigration. And in just four months, McAllister has a 41% score from Heritage Action.
This loser is finished. Everyone in the state from Bobby Jindal on down has told him to take a hike and now the leadership in the House is giving him the cold shoulder. This asshat deserves every bit of humiliation he gets for being a reckless imbecile.
Datsun...We Are Driven. (Except When We Are Towed)