Underdog Senate Candidates Tie Themselves to Ron Johnson
Updated at 2:18 p.m.
It's not even 2012 yet, but several underdog GOP Senate challengers have an eye on an election taking place this afternoon that could foreshadow the power of the grassroots to upset the establishment.
The race to become Senate GOP Conference Vice Chair is a two-man competition between freshman Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis. The two candidates' backgrounds are largely the reason Senate candidates are lining up behind Johnson. He's a former businessman and still new to politics. Blunt is ingrained in politics and Washington: He served in the House for over a decade where he was the GOP whip for six years.
The contest has become something of a rallying cry for conservatives -- with prominent figures like Erick Erickson and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., supporting for Johnson. Senate challengers are also weighing in.
In Michigan, Cornerstone Schools co-founder Clark Durant, who is running to the right of former GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra, came out in support of Johnson on Monday.
"The Republican members of the U.S. Senate will send a clear message to every hard-working American that real change is coming to Washington by elevating Senator Johnson," he said in a statement.
Nebraska Treasurer Don Stenberg, who is trying to parlay support from DeMint and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, into a stronger challenge to the right of Attorney General Jon Bruning, also expressed his support for Johnson on Monday.
"If I were a United States Senator today, I would vote for Senator Ron Johnson in the race for Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference," Stenberg said.
Even more telling: The three GOP candidates running against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, would not back Blunt, even though he represents the Show-Me State. They are not backing Johnson either, but the implicit snub of Blunt says a great deal about the trajectory of that GOP primary.
In Johnson's home state, both former Rep. Mark Neumann and former Gov. Tommy Thompson are for Johnson, News Talk 1360 reported. A spokesman for state Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he also supports Johnson.
In Florida, Adam Hasner, pitching himself as the Marco Rubio-esque conservative in the race, has come out in support of Johnson. Hasner's portraying himself as something of an outsider, even though the reality is he is anything but one, having served as state House majority leader. He expressed his support on Friday, before Durant and Stenberg weighed in, and also before FreddomWorks endorsed Johnson's candidacy.
Johnson's stock in the tea party is still very high, and his 2010 outsider/businessman campaign is still remembered fondly among operatives and conservative candidates running in 2012 who'd like to repeat his success next year.
But don't count on the Conference Vice Chair race to move the needle too much in GOP primaries. It's a D.C. insider campaign of the highest order, and primary voters aren't likely to be swayed too heavily by its outcome.
Still, it says something about the state of GOP Senate primaries that support for Blunt is nowhere to be found among challengers. The dominant positions have been either support for Johnson or neutrality/silence.
It's less about political ideology than it is about the desire to drum up grassroots support. Blunt had a very conservative voting record in the House. But Johnson's profile -- outsider, businessman, not-of-the-establishment -- meant a lot of grassroots support in 2010. Many Republicans hope to channel the same kind of energy in 2012.
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