(originally posted at SSP)
OK, who goofed? Dave Weigel reports that Tim Crawford, the guy who won the Democratic primary earlier this month in IN-05, is a certifiable teabagger who seems to hate everything about Democrats and Obama.
Just look at what he's written on his Facebook page.
So... anti-health care reform, thinks we're all socialists, and a Tenther to boot! Folks, this is the DEMOCRATIC nominee we're talking about. His website is, um... interesting, to say the least.
Now, I'm all for conservative Democrats representing conservative districts. BUT... there's a difference between a conservative Blue Dog Democrat, and a fringe nutjob ex-Republican tenther who only spouts Fox News talking points!
How'd Indiana Democrats let this happen? Nonpartisan had me convinced Nasser Hanna, an actual Democrat, would be the Democratic nominee. Instead... we got Crawford, who handily won the primary, 61%-39%.
Unfortunately, it seems that the Democrats of IN-05 went to the voting booth, saw "Nasser" and "Tim", and decided by a pretty substantial margin to NOT vote for the foreign sounding name. How do I know this? Because Hanna raised over $100,000 for the race, and Crawford doesn't even accept donations. He didn't win because of some awesome TV spot or anything.
Ugh.
Now, given incumbent Dan Burton's (R) immense unpopularity, given how he barely survived several primary challenges earlier this month, winning only with 30% of the vote in a 7-way race, there may actually be a danger of the Republicans in this district abandoning Burton in November, and since Crawford seems to fit their ideology, actually voting for Crawford. Hell, Crawford may be more in line with their ideology than Burton is.
I can't stress enough how much I think a Crawford win, however unlikely it seems (but we've seen strange things happen in politics), would be a very bad thing for Democrats. He'd be undercutting our message every step of the way, and would instantly become a Fox News interview favorite. We don't need to add to our caucus someone who's actually a tenther (and in all likelihood, probably a birther too). Although Crawford doesn't explicitly state an allegiance to the Tea Party, Dave Weigel calls him a "tea party Democrat".
It's one thing to have a big tent. It's another thing to let in the fringe. And Crawford is definitely part of that fringe.
