Operation Counterweight has started. We need people in the House and Senate who are not afraid to fight.
In many states and districts, it will be easy. In others it will be hard. We are going to have to win a couple of hard ones in order to have the Senate we want, where we are not held hostage by one or two or three defections.
Incumbent Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse is assumed to be an easy winner in my home state of Rhode Island. He has a couple million in the bank, and Rhode Island is the bluest of blue states. But don’t let that deceive you. Whitehouse is beatable.
A recent Brown University poll found that Whitehouse’s approval rating was just 33%, compared to a 46.4% favorability rating for Democratic Senator Jack Reed and 44.2% for Obama.
Whitehouse, one of the most polarizing Democrats in the Senate, just is not well-liked. There is lingering resentment from Whitehouse’s infamous speech on the floor of the Senate when he invoked Kristallnacht and Aryan supremacists in attacking the opponents of Obamacare.
Whitehouse also has received a lot of bad press because he coincidentally liquidated a sizable portion of his porfolio just in advance of the 2008 credit crunch; whether he traded on inside Senate information or was just the luckiest investor in America remains to be seen.
Under the radar Barry Hinckley, a businessman from Newport, has been building his campaign, raising money, putting a staff together, and meeting people. Hinckley is new to politics, and is likely to be the Republican nominee since former Governor Donald Carcieri announced he was not running.
I had breakfast the other day with Hinckley, and was very impressed. This is a guy who is completely unafraid of the Whitehouse money and the Democratic machine, and who is taking the fight to Whitehouse through numerous and frequent appearances on local talk radio (Rhode Island has a very strong conservative talk radio presence).
Hinckley, with a business background and untainted by politics, is in a perfect position to take the fight over job killing legislation and regulations to Whitehouse in a state which is losing population and hemorrhaging jobs.
And Rhode Island has a long history of electing Republicans to statewide office, including Governor and U.S. Senate, so don’t think this blue state cannot elect a Republican.
I strongly urge you to support Barry Hinckley with a donation. The Senate seat in Rhode Island could be the shocker of 2012.
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Comments
Sounds like you might have your own version of Ron Johnson. Johnson was not only a frequent radio talk guest, but also showed at TEA Party rallies, local GOP functions and pretty much any time someone said, “Hey Ron…can you stop by and introduce yourself.” Johnson clobbered Feingold.
If Hinkley is half as affable as Johnson, he will win handily.
Great News: In 10 years we should be able to permanently eliminate 1 of RI’s Democratic Congressmen. Even better, we won’t have to make any effort at all to accomplish this.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/28/what_2010_census_tells_us_about_2020_reapportionment.html
If current demographic trends continue, RI will be back down to a 1 Congressional District.
Of course, what we really need is to turn New England into a single state. It’d have no effect on Congresscritters, but we would only be saddled with 2 rather than 12 liberal Senators (well, ok, maybe we can keep NH as a separate state).
The US Constitution expressly forbids the formation of new states from existing states (Art.IV, Sec.3).
I was joking. I know I have a dry wit, but did I really need to put a 🙂 at the end of that to make it clear I wasn’t serious?
However:
The Constitution does NOT forbid it. In fact, the very article you cite expressly allows it to happen and outlines the procedure necessary.
Read the text of the article you cited:
“New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”
The last bit is the key, “without the Consent of the Legislatures concerned as well as of the Congress.”
So, you CAN create states from existing states. You just need the consent of the legisture of the state to be divided, or all the states being combined, as well as the consent of the federal Congress. Its a high bar, but clearly allowed and, in fact, not unprecedented.
Vermont part was part of New York until 1791, they separated and came in as a free state to counterbalance Kentucky coming in as a slave state.
Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820 (came in as part of the Missouri compromise as a free state to counterbalance Missouri as a slave state).
West Virginia was part of Virginia until 1863. When Virginia seceded from the Union, West Virginia was formed of a few counties that didn’t want to secede. After the war, Virginia sued to get its counties back, saying the formation of WV was unconstitutional. VA was correct, since the legislature of VA was never consulted much less approved the loss of its counties, but SCOTUS decided otherwise.
I feel like I’m forgetting one, but all I can think of at the moment is Delaware which separated from PA immediately prior to the Revolution. DE was one of the first 13 states, but PA challenged the legality of it for about a century. DE still to this day celebrates “Separation Day”, meaning separation from PA.
There have been proposals to divide TX into as many as five states and there’s currently a movement to divide CA into two states.
Now, if only we could give Los Angeles to Mexico. 🙂 <– note the smiley, that's a joke.
The legislative races are perhaps more important than the executive race in 2012. One of the biggest problems with the Obama administration is its power grab that Congress has let go unchecked. The Senate may be content to allow the President to reign supreme since he’s on the same team, but it is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If Obama pulls off an upset next November, we MUST have control of the Senate and House to stand up to whatever he plans to do to wreck our nation further.
very informed comment re: Constitutional prohibition of forming new states from existing states.
So, if we are all not thrilled with the Republican Presidential candidate, we vote for him and research and support conservative Congressional candidates with campaign donations and volunteering and pray conservatives win in excess of the margin of voter registration fraud and voting booth hacking.
You might want to scroll up. The Constitution expressly ALLOWS not prohibits forming new states from existing states. That’s why Maine, WV and VT exist now.
I am very glad that Operation Counterweight has begun. I will shortly be sending a check for $25 to Hinckley. If enough of us do this, Whitehouse will be toast.
Also, I fully agree that we need to do everything we can possibly do to get back the Senate in 2012. There are indeed enough ignorant and uninformed people in this nation to re-elect Obama. That and all the election fraud could indeed see him with a second term. If he should get re-elected, we will need to do everything we can possibly do to frustrate and stymie him as possible.
QUESTION: Could Obama have gotten us into the 4T debt if the Senate didn’t go along with him? What about the Solyndra deal? Does the President have the authority to just squander money like that? If so, how much damage can he do?
I can remember back when RI had a Republican senator, (John Chafee) and both representatives were Republican. One was Claudine Schneider and I forget who the east bay rep was.
None of these folks were conservative Republicans but they sure were better than anything RI has currently.
NOT included in my list is that POS lincoln chafee who currently serves as the state’s governor after losing his Senate seat. He got a whopping 34% of the vote in the gubernatorial election and thinks that he has a mandate…
Done.
May I suggest L.I. append an update to this post.
Hinkcley’s ancestry is fascinating + poignant.
“..Eight grandfathers ago, Barry Hinckley’s forebear, Col. James Barrett, commanded the Minutemen of Concord and is famed for having fired one of the first shots at the advancing British across the North Bridge. Col. Barrett’s family farm still stands today and has since become a local landmark…”
Great hair. Great face. Talks normal. I’m having a Dark horse moment.
Eh, sometimes I think I’d rather have a raging liberal Democrat in the position. That way at least I can see the knife coming at me from the front……
[…] Operation Counterweight […]
Senator Whitehouse is one of the most despicable political hacks in Congress. If Mr. Hinckley can mount a creditable campaign (despite the handicap of the the Rhode Island Republican Party), I would welcome that and would not just vote for him, I would contribute to his campaign. I’ve gone to his website and I like (or do not oppose) his listed positions on issues. His candidacy is beginning to seem viable.