11 county Republican straw polls — 11 wins for Marco Rubio over Charlie Crist.

But this one was different.

The fact that Crist lost in Pinellas County, which he represented in the state Senate and where he’s lived nearly all his life, can’t be a good sign for Crist.

This is another in a string of positive events for Marco Rubio. Nearly unknown and trailing significantly in the polls just a year ago, Rubio’s conservative message has energized party faithful and impressed those less politically aware.

One common, if anecdotal, theme is that Rubio stands out because of his beliefs, but also because of how genuine he appears to be.

I wish more politicians understood this:

Scott Brown in his debate with Martha Coakley. (h/t Gina Cobb)

He also had a pretty good day fund raising, ending the day with over a million dollars.

The Democrats from the bluest state in the nation have to be in panic mode. To actually win this seat every star will have to align perfectly, not a high odds bet. Still, it could happen and, whatever the outcome, it will be a quite a indicator of conservative chances in the rest of 2010.

I have a new poll in the sidebar to the right. The question is: How will conservatives do in the 2010 Mid-terms? Vote, and add your comments here on this post.

2010 is here and, whatever your thoughts on the eventual outcome, it’s time for conservatives to get to work. And to discuss things about the mid-terms and conservativism in general go join the group at The Regiment.

Good morning, and welcome to 2010! The old meme for the new year used to be how long would you be writing 2009 on your checks. In 2010 the question is, do you still write paper checks?

One conversation at work yesterday was about not just how quickly 2009 went by, but how it seems like such a short time ago that we were welcoming 2000 (when we weren’t worried about Y2K bringing the world to an end).

2009 was a very interesting year in many ways. Of course the biggest story has been the year of the unprecedented presidency. Why it’s been one historic moment after another. Then you remember that the Hindenburg and Little Big Horn were also historic moments and hope that 2010 can fix some things.

Politics, of course, will be a big part of 2010. The mid-term elections, and the primaries preceding them, will interesting to watch (and blog about). In addition to following the national races, I am going to watching the Rubio-Crist race here in Florida very closely.

One very important story here in the very first moments of 2010 is will Fox and Brighthouse/Time Warner resolve their dispute?

The negotiations between Fox and Time Warner Cable were extended a second time early this morning.

The original midnight deadline first was pushed back to 3 a.m., then a second time to 7 a.m. The two parties are negotiating in Los Angeles.

As of 8:44 local time Fox is still on. Why is this important? For many people it’s today’s Sugar Bowl between Florida and Cincinnati and Tim Tebow’s last college game. Beyond that, for me at least, is the fact that Season 8 of 24 starts in just 2 weeks, 2 days, 11 hours and 11 minutes. I need Fox so I can continue to contribute to Blogs.4Bauer.com

So, what are my blogging plans for 2010?

• More, and more regular, posting here at bRight & Early. Sure, I make this a goal every year, but this year I’m going to do it.
• I’ve posted over the past few days about The Regiment. I’m going to work very hard to develop the site as a great social network and resource for conservatives.
• Reclaim Conservatism also deserves some attention.
• FloridImagine.com is my hosting reseller site. There’s no excuse to neglect an opportunity to generate some revenue.
• I’ve made some halfhearted attempts to get Blog News Co-op off the ground. Perhaps a wholehearted attempt is what’s needed.
• Aside from working on the various sites I contribute to, I absolutely have to be a more active visitor and commenter on my friends and favorite blogs. Like:
  • Support Your Local Gunfighter
  • Sister Toldjah
  • No Runny Eggs
  • Common Sense Political Thought
  • Flopping Aces
  • Ace of Spades HQ
  • Pirates Cove
  • Brian Pickrell
  • Michelle Malkin
  • Hot Air
  • Right Wing News
  • Confederate Yankee
  • The Jawa Report
  • And so many more that I shouldn’t have even started a list like this.

And, to make this a Rule 5 post remember that 2010 is the year the Danica Patrick joins NASCAR.

Happy New Year!

2010 image by freeimageslive.co.uk – christmashat

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is going to be the keynote speaker at CPAC.

CPAC Director Lisa De Pasquale made the announcement on the conference’s Twitter feed.

“We chose Rubio because he is an upcoming leader. He is someone that a lot of people are excited about,” De Pasquale told POLITICO. “His name keeps getting brought up and we decided that he would be a good keynote for 2010.”

He is an excellent choice. As Allahpundit said at Hot Air:

It’s an easy pick because there’s no pol in America aside from Sarahcuda whom the base is more excited about, and he needs this exposure a lot more than she does. It’s essentially a huge, free advertisement for his Senate campaign with all the earned media that goes along with that. And of course it’s a great advertisement for conservatives too: He’s young, charismatic, and a minority, which makes him almost the polar opposite of the standard media caricature of right-wingers.

My guess is that the crowd at CPAC is going to love this choice. He is extremely popular with party activist, going 12-0 in straw polls, winning most by huge margins.

The race between Rubio and Crist is being touted as an indicator of conservative sentiment and power. CPAC may give Rubio the name recognition he needs, and then the real test can begin.

It’s a trend that has been repeating itself, in spite of the “official” position of the state party. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has been winning county REC straw polls by impressive margins. The latest was in Bay County.

Mirroring the sentiment established by Republican Executive Committees statewide, the Bay County REC overwhelmingly gave their informal support to Marco Rubio in his bid to replace U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez during a straw poll at their Monday meeting.

Rubio got 23 votes; Gov. Charlie Crist received two votes, and two members voted for none of the above. Despite having the formal endorsement of the Republican Party of Florida, Crist has not faired well in REC straw polls statewide, a possible indication that he has not won over the party faithful.

In one of the most recent straw polls, for instance, Highland County’s REC voted 75 to one in favor of Rubio.

I need to roundup all the REC straw poll votes I can find. If you know of any results, please let me know in the comments.

You can follow Marco Rubio on Twitter.

Doug Ross peers into a crystal ball and “reports” the news from the 2010 elections.

Read the post and see if you aren’t a little bit fearful of what could very easily be true.

This one from former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Here is what Gov. Huckabee said in an email.

When someone stands on principles throughout their career in politics, it’s an easy choice to endorse their candidacy for Senate. Today, I am excited to formally announce my endorsement of Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate.

Marco believes in smaller government. He is a firm supporter of life. As the former Florida Speaker he was incredibly effective at bringing new ideas to the table and working to see them passed into law. He is a family man, loyal, compassionate and someone I am proud to call a friend.

I encourage you to watch my video endorsement on my blog here and then share it with friends, family and co-workers by email, Twitter and on Facebook. After you do, please consider making an immediate contribution to Marco’s campaign for Senate at http://MarcoRubio.com.

Last night, his opponent was raising money in Washington, DC. I am told he may have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, I am hoping that Marco will receive the financial support of tens of thousands of Americans; the sort who make one political contribution a year, to the candidate they believe in with their hearts not just their heads. Because I firmly believe it is these contributions that will make the difference in this race, not the money raised from lobbyists who make a new political contribution each week, betting the “smart money.”

So please watch my endorsement video today and then consider making a contribution directly to Marco’s campaign for Senate.

Standing with Marco,

Mike Huckabee

Please spread the word!

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint has announced that he is supporting Marco Rubio in the race to replace Mel Martinez.

For months now, Republicans have been looking around, asking everyone they meet who our next leaders will be. And somehow, inexplicably, many of us have grown blind to the diamonds all around us. There are already many young, conservative leaders ready to fight for freedom in Washington and in state capitals all around the country. But we’ll never find them if we only look for well-known politicians or choose our party’s direction based on the latest polls instead of timeless principles.

Rubio is the son of Cuban exiles, who fled to the United States in the late 1950s without a dollar in their pocket. He tells inspiring stories about the neighborhoods where he grew up, and how America empowered his family to make a life for themselves. Rubio did rise: to college and law school, to the City Commission in West Miami to the legislature, all the way to the speaker’s chair. From each of these positions, Rubio has championed a positive, principled, conservative agenda as the best way to create jobs and opportunities. He is living the American Dream, and understands how much he owes to our Founders and their principles of personal liberty and limited government. He wants to serve because he wants to protect those principles – when Marco Rubio swears an oath to our constitution, he’s one of those politicians who will actually mean it.

Everywhere he has gone, Rubio has stood up to liberal ideas and interest groups, and stood up for freedom. He has taken on daunting issues – from a statewide education curriculum to energy reform – and succeeded in persuading independents and Democrats that his ideas – innovative, conservative solutions – make for the best answers to our biggest challenges.

He is exactly the kind of Senator Florida needs, and exactly the kind of leader our party is looking for: a conservative’s conservative with a record of success in a swing state, a self-made first generation American, a dynamic Republican spokesman in two languages, a young husband and father himself dealing with the same problems middle class families like his face every day.

Too many in the GOP leadership have fallen into the trap of thinking that becoming “Democrat-lite” is the way to go. They are wrong. Luke warm Republicanism is no substitute for clear convictions and conservative values. We can compromise on plans and programs, but we can not compromise our values. We must avoid faulty thinking that confuses the two.

Marc Rubio is someone who appears to understand that difference. Programs change, principles do not. That is the kind of thinking we need to rebuild our party and move our country forward.

There is no question Marco Rubio will be a big part of the Republican Party’s future, but I believe if we are to defeat the forces of Big Government now controlling Washington, Marco Rubio needs to be a big part of the Republican Party’s present. He has the skills and ideas we need to rebuild our party, reform our government, and renew our nation.

I urge those of you in Florida to do whatever you can to help Marco Rubio in his run for the Senate. It is going to be a tough battle where he will be fighting against name recognition, fund raising, and even the party leadership. But it is a fight that needs to be made, and a fight that can be won.

Visit the Marco Rubio campaign website and follow @MarcoRubio on twitter.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is expected to announce that he will be running for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. According to a Politico article,

But while Crist is a brand-name recruit with sky-high approval ratings and bipartisan appeal, his path to keeping the seat of retiring Sen. Mel Martinez in GOP hands has at least one significant roadblock: Sunshine State conservatives.

Despite Crist’s widespread popularity, he faces a primary in which he will have to make his case to a restless GOP base dissatisfied with his high-profile advocacy for President Barack Obama’s stimulus and his handling of the state’s budget woes.

I have to admit that I voted for Governor Crist. I’ve been less than pleased by the results. His “moderate” stances on a myriad of issues are quite disappointing and they are not what a revitalized GOP needs.

Crist will be facing conservative opposition in the primary. Former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio has announced his run:

(h/t Gordon Cafe/@conservateacher)

More from Politico:

Florida GOP operatives believe that Rubio has the potential to be a formidable opponent, if he can raise the millions of dollars necessary to compete against a governor with a wide fundraising network in Tallahassee.They acknowledge that knocking Crist off would be very difficult, with public polls showing the governor with approval ratings in the mid-60s and support from Democrats and independents that most Republicans can only dream of.

But they also point to a growing undercurrent of mainstream conservative dissatisfaction, beginning with Crist’s decision to appear at a February rally alongside Obama to raise support for the stimulus. Over the past several months, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has railed against Crist over his plans to control property insurance premiums and his support for higher government spending.

“Crist doesn’t represent a right-wing philosophy or a left-wing philosophy. He represents no philosophy,” said Ana Navarro, a leading GOP fundraiser in Florida who has been one of Crist’s most outspoken Republican critics.

It is going to be an interesting primary. I am sure both the primary and the general election are going to attract national attention. And national money. The Dems would love to pick up this seat. Barring that they would love to see another Dem Lite Republican holding the office. That’s not what we need. It is time to stand on conservative principles. The GOP primary is going to be a battle.

John Fund WSJ article, More Acorn Voter Fraud Comes to Light, looks at another case being brought against ACORN and the response from the left.

On Monday, Nevada officials charged Acorn, its regional director and its Las Vegas field director with submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms last year. Larry Lomax, the registrar of voters in Las Vegas, says he believes 48% of Acorn’s forms “are clearly fraudulent.” On Thursday, prosecutors in Pittsburgh, Pa., also charged seven Acorn employees with filing hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations before last year’s general election.

As usual, ACORN claims that the abuses where only the work of a few bad employees.

But Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada’s Democratic Attorney General, told the Las Vegas Sun that Acorn itself is named in the criminal complaint. She says that Acorn’s training manuals “clearly detail, condone and . . . require illegal acts,” such as requiring its workers to meet strict voter-registration targets to keep their jobs.

What is interesting in Fund’s piece is the marked difference between local and federal Democratic response.

State and city Democratic officials — who’ve been contending with its many scandals — are moving against it. Washington Democrats are still sweeping Acorn abuses under a rug.

He cites two examples: John Conyers (D-MI) suggesting that a House Judiciary Subcommittee look into the allegations surrounding the group and later withdrawing that idea saying, “the complaints against Acorn, I have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears unwarranted at this time.” Also Rep. Barney Frank; at first voting in favor of Michelle Bachmann’s amendment that would “block groups indicted for voter fraud from receiving federal housing or legal assistance grants” but latter reversing his position.

Bachmann’s amendment is about the money, and it is a lot of money.

In the stimulus bill passed by Congress, Acorn is eligible — along with other activist groups — to apply for $2 billion in funds to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed homes.

State after state, election after election, allegations and charges have been brought against this corrupt group. So, naturally, they’ve been enlisted to help with next year’s census. Unbelievable.

In spite of every straw heaped upon the camel’s back they don’t appear worried.

“We’ve had bad publicity before, and all it does is inform the community that we’re here working for the community,” Bonnie Greathouse, Acorn’s head organizer in Nevada, assured the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “People always come forward to our defense. We’re just community organizers, just like the president used to be.”

I don’t know if that’s scary, sad, or just infuriating. Maybe it’s all three.

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint laid out a very practical look at building the Republican “Big Tent” in a WSJ Opinion piece yesterday. Key to such an effort is this:

To win back the trust of the American people, we must be a “big tent” party. But big tents need strong poles, and the strongest pole of our party — the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats — must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions. If Republicans can’t agree on that, elections are the least of our problems.

The Republican Party has spent a lot of time and effort trying to construct a big tent by stitching a bunch of little tents together. It has proven to be ineffective and, in some cases, impossible. We tend to overlook the fact that despite the myriad of fabrics we use to cover our tents the supports hold much in common.

The reality that, “The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions” is the common theme that can provide the basis for all of our coalition building.

Freedom will mean different things to different Republicans, but it can tether a diverse coalition to inalienable principles. Republicans can welcome a vigorous debate about legalized abortion or same-sex marriage; but we should be able to agree that social policies should be set through a democratic process, not by unelected judges. Our party benefits from national-security debates; but Republicans can start from the premise that the U.S. is an exceptional nation and force for good in history. We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them.

John Hawkins adds his thoughts:

Still, this ain’t football. It’s not all about cheering for “our team.” So, being a “Republican” has to mean something. So, what DeMint lays down are some very broad and inclusive — but also, conservative principles that EVERY Republican — moderate, conservative, libertarian leaning, neocon, paleocon, and social conservative should be able to agree on. If you can’t AT LEAST agree to the incredibly basic principles that DeMint is discussing here, then you’re probably in the wrong political party.

Ed Morrissey makes several good points:

Jim DeMint, who has campaigned for conservatives and conservative causes, advises his allies on the Right that the GOP needs to narrow its focus if it expects to win elections again. In fact, the more narrow the focus, the bigger the tent

One key problem plaguing Republicans has been trying to be all things to all people. This leads to attempts to provide government solutions, federal solutions, on what should be state, local, and individual issues.

Senator DeMint:

Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right! I don’t want to make decisions for them. That’s why I’m working to reduce Washington’s grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals, so that Northeastern Republicans, Western Republicans, Southern Republicans, and Midwestern Republicans can define their own brands of Republicanism. It’s the Democrats who want to impose a rigid, uniform agenda on all Americans. Freedom Republicanism is about choice — in education, health care, energy and more. It’s OK if those choices look different in South Carolina, Maine and California.

The problem, especially in recent years, is that instead of offering candidates and policies that adhere to these basic principles Republicans have too often presented themselves as “Democrat-Lite”.

Captain Ed once again:

If the GOP presents voters with a choice between a fake Democrat and a real Democrat, voters will choose the authentic item every time. The Republican Party at some point began being afraid of its own core values of smaller government, greater personal freedom, and federalism.

DeMint makes it very clear why this is true.

If the American people want a European-style social democracy, the Democratic Party will give it to them. We can’t win a bidding war with Democrats.

We have been trying to win that bidding war on the cheap. Unsuccessfully. And wrongly. In the process the only thing we’ve managed to do has been to drive up the price. We can’t continue to do this and hope to be successful as a party and, I would argue, as a nation.