The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

Senator Brownback visited New Hampshire yesterday to speak to the conservative group Cornerstone Policy Research. The Kansas City Star reported that his address sounded like “a stump speech in the making” quoting Brownback as saying:

[He gave] some personal background, getting laughs with stories from his youth, and highlighting the issues that rev up the Republican party’s socially conservative base.

“Those of you standing for life, standing for marriage, standing for bringing God back into the public square, we’re fighting about first things now in America,” Brownback told about 150 people, who gave him a standing ovation when he finished.

The article noted that New England is not the home of Brownback’s base, and that he might have problems competing in a state with the libertarian-esque motto “Live Free or Die.” His brand of social conservatism is likely clash with this sentiment, as there is no place Brownback would rather be than in your bedroom.

Nothing in his speech was particularly notable, most of it was a rehash of the same old gay-bashing, culture clashing, hate mongering that has become a Brownback standard. However, he had some interesting things to say when asked about some challenges his hypothetical campaign would face. On the issue of fund raising, the article explained:

Brownback, his aides and many political observers point to the model of another populist dark-horse who raised unexpectedly large funds: 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.

“That was a direct-mail campaign using the Internet, which is far cheaper than direct-mail solicitations,” Brownback said. You really put a lot of lead on the target … That’s the best type of fund raising I like to do. It’s based on philosophy.”

Given Brownback’s ties to the conservative grassroots, “he could be the kind of guy who gets a lot of people to give a couple hundred bucks,” said Dante Scala, an expert in New Hampshire presidential politics who teaches at St. Anselm College in Manchester.

As someone who closely followed Dr. Dean’s ascendancy during the Democratic primary, I agree that this form of solicitation can be very powerful. On the one hand, the Senator has the correct following to sustain such a fund raising effort. Many of his evangelical Christian supporters are fanatical in their following. They believe in the ideas behind the man and would be willing to donate, even if it looked like a lost cause.

On the other hand, Brownback is likely to be competing with other candidates for the fundamentalist’s money. In particular, Senators Santorum and Frist will be trying to drink from the same fountain of intolerance. They both have higher name recognition and have proven fund raising strategies in place. Brownback would have to distinguish himself from these candidates to have a chance of getting more than his fair share of the bigotry pie.

I addition to the Kansas City Star article, the Wichita Eagle and the Associated Press chimed in on the subject as well. The Wichita Eagle article goes a little more in depth into ‘ole Sam’s background and is a good read.