Reporters have been waiting for almost three whole days to see what the Sarah Palin-backed, tea party-favored Clint Didier would do after Dino Rossi crushed him in Tuesday’s open Senate primary in Washington. Today they got their answer: Didier may have received only 12% of the vote in the primary, but he’s gonna stick around to make Rossi’s life difficult anyway.
“At this moment, I cannot endorse Dino Rossi,” Didier told reporters at a press conference today.
According to the Seattle Times Didier said “he’s willing to throw his support behind Republican Dino Rossi, but not until the U.S. Senate candidate makes specific promises about taxes and abortion rights.” The price of an endorsement from the third-place finisher in the open primary? “[A] pledge not to support new taxes, promises to never vote for anything that would increase the federal budget, and promises to sponsor an anti-abortion bill,” the paper reports.
Now that Didier’s thrown down the gauntlet, there are two semi-important questions to consider. One: will Rossi sign Didier’s pledge, potentially making it harder for him to woo moderate voters in his race against Sen. Patty Murray (D) in the blue state of Washington? And two: if he doesn’t what will Didier do?
On Wednesday, a Didier supporter threatened to start a write-in campaign for Didier if Rossi won’t fit the bill for Didier’s conservative backers.
“For myself, I no longer vote ‘for the lesser of two evils; because evil still wins!” Tri-Cities Tea Party organizer Leon Howard told the Tri-City Herald. “I choose to vote for a person of principle; a person who speaks with passion; a man who will not back down when he is right; a man who will not be intimidated! I will write-in Clint Didier on November 2nd!”
A strong endorsement of Rossi from Didier could help heal potential Republican fractures, making it easier for Rossi to shoot for the middle in his attempt to unseat Murray. The TPM Poll Average for the general election contest shows Murray ahead 48.7-46.6.
Still, Hotline’s Jeremy Jacobs suggested that all the hullabaloo about Didier’s endorsement could be much ado about nothing when all is said and done.
“The big question all this raises is whether or not this disunity matters for the GOP in November. At this point it is unclear. In may not matter in Washington. Didier only earned a little more than 12% of the vote, and it has been pretty clear from the beginning that Rossi is the strongest candidate,” he wrote. “There is also an argument that by the time November rolls around, this disunity will be forgotten.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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