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Karl Rove: Countdown to Kicking Out Harry Reid
Thursday, August 28, 2014 06:35 AM
By: Elliot Jager
Republicans are poised to recapture the U.S. Senate and must use the 10 weeks after Labor Day to let voters know what their priorities are for running the country, Karl Rove wrote in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal.
Rove said it is essential that Republican candidates offer voters an idea about the direction they want to go. Republicans need to show that they stand for constructive change to President Barack Obama's policies, the veteran GOP strategist wrote.
The GOP can feel confident because quite a few of the races are in states that lean their way and because they have a strong slate of electable candidates, he said. Democrats will nonetheless try to tar Republicans as extremists, anti-woman, and appeal to class warfare, Rove wrote.
Obama has largely receded from the public and though unpredictable he can be expected to return in the fall to defend his agenda, raise money, and mobilize core elements within the Democratic Party, he said.
Democrats have not done a good job of distancing themselves from Obama but have built up their resources and campaign apparatus, Rove said. As a result, races in such states as Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, and North Carolina will be very close, Rove wrote.
Republicans require a net gain of six seats to retake the Senate. They must defeat at least three incumbents. Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia look likely to be flipped, Rove said. As many as five additional seats could well fall to the GOP, he said. If the GOP can retain Kentucky and Georgia, Harry Reid will be replaced by Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader, he said.
GOP control of the Senate would rein in Obama for the remainder of his term, Rove wrote.
"The election will come down to whether people want allies of Mr. Obama and Sen. Harry Reid returned to Washington," Rove wrote, "or whether Republicans can convince voters that they will govern, that they are more in touch with the middle class about changing Washington and that they will better represent their state's values."
