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John McCain not the only Republican worried about those pesky Libertarians

From the Sunday Austin American-Statesman [h/t Independent Political Report]

A former Republican state representative called three Libertarian Party candidates for the state House on Friday to request that they drop out of their races rather than take votes from their Republican opponents.

Suzanna Hupp, who represented District 54 in Central Texas for 10 years, said she made the calls Friday because of concerns that the Libertarian candidates would take Republican votes and ultimately give Democrats control over state and national seats.

"The fact is, we've got redistricting coming up in a few years," said Hupp, from Lampasas, who served in the House from 1997 to 2007, "and if the Republicans lose the (Texas) House of Representatives because there are a handful of people mad at them and vote for the Libertarians instead, then we could be in big trouble at the federal level."


Ms. Hupp, less than twenty-four hours after making these calls, could only recall two of the three people she called, District 64 Libertarian candidate Jason Jordan and District 9 Libertarian candidate Joe Allport.

Libertarian Party of Texas Chair Wes Benedict had his own message for Jordan, Allport and the candidate to be named later:

Benedict said he told Libertarian candidates to "sit tight and stay in the race" after the calls were made. "I told them that Republicans need to earn those votes," he said.


Hang in there, guys, you know they're afraid of you when they're trying to warn you off.

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