“Outsider” Chaffetz Embraced by GOP Leaders
It’s good to know that an “outsider” can still shake up the establishment if he or she has the courage and tenacity to buck the status quo. It’s also good to know that, in Pat Buchanan’s memorable phrase, “peasants with pitchforks” can start a grassroots campaign, with no paid staff and no party backing and still pull off a coup.
Kudos to Jason Chaffetz and his “peasants with pitchforks” on their big primary win and now it’s on to Washington and let’s work for change there as well.
~~John Cronin~~
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9973377
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Republican Party establishment, which took a few shots from 3rd District candidate Jason Chaffetz earlier in the campaign, is now embracing Chaffetz following his defeat of Rep. Chris Cannon in a June primary.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. endorsed Chaffetz on Wednesday, praising his “tenacity.” And Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, who backed Cannon during the primary, will host a Washington fundraiser for Chaffetz next week.
“At the end of the day, Republicans need to come together, and this takes us one step further in that direction,” Chaffetz said of the endorsements. “We’re all Republicans. We disagree on some issues, but we’ve got to beat the Democrats come November, so I very much appreciate their support. I need it.”
Huntsman spent the primary campaign on the sidelines, even though Chaffetz ran Huntsman’s campaign for governor and was his chief of staff during much of the governor’s first year in office.
“As a member of Congress, Jason’s dogged tenacity will serve the people of Utah well,” Huntsman said in a statement Wednesday. “Jason has worked determinedly in his public service. His dedication and ability to dive into hard issues will be a formidable addition to Utah’s congressional delegation.”
But during his speech at the state Republican Convention in May, Chaffetz got loud applause by taking a shot at the governor’s stance on climate change.
“Jon Huntsman, as much as I like you, you’re wrong on global warming. It’s a farce,” Chaffetz said, as Huntsman and his family stood just off-stage.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Jason Chaffetz has a bright future ahead of him. I appreciate the article and continuous coverage. But….isn’t there a Jason Chaffetz blog or other site that can be used to discuss Jason’s new career?
Now, if you can link Chaffetz to Romney in your articles — that would be great!
July 24th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Did Romney’s PAC endorse him? I hope so. Mitt should be cultivating people like him as conservative foot soldiers to turn this country around.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Sorry if this is a repeat but here is another voting poll for VP. Romney is winning nearly every poll that I see.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BurtPrelutsky/2008/07/23/a_few_more_reasons_to_oppose_obama
July 24th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Romney Fan,
There are Jason Chaffetz blogs out there, but they don’t have the viewership that CommittedToRomney enjoys. They don’t get linked by PlanetRomney.ORG or The.Virginian
Federalist.COM.
What I am trying to do is get candidates like Jason the widest possible publicity and that is why I blog about Jason and other conservative candidates here. We also have a very proactive viewer base. When they see a candidate profile on CTR, they will rally to that person’s support.
How does all this tie in with our support of Mitt Romney?
Hopefully Gov. Romney will run again in 2012 and if that happens, we will have had a four year head start on all the “Vote for Romney in 2012″ sites that will pop up all over the Net.
In the meantime, we will be doing everything we can to benefit the country by helping to elect conservative candidates to Congress so that a future President Romney will have a majority in Congress that will help him enact his agenda for America. Lastly, the candidates I have been promoting here are virtually political clones of Gov. Romney. That enables us to talk about and debate the identical issues we would have been posting about if Romney was the presumptive nominee of the party this year.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Bigmo,
I have not heard anything about Romney’s PAC endorsing Chaffetz. To the best of my knowledge, they have not endorsed him. (yet)