Story link:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/13/ron-paul-rand-paul-ted-cruz-federal-reserve-vote
Ron's call audio:
https://soundcloud.com/user-21348970/ron-paul-audio
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Rand Paul’s presidential campaign has drafted in his father, libertarian icon Ron Paul, to directly attack Republican rival Ted Cruz in a robocall in Iowa, the first time the former presidential candidate has gone on the offensive on his son’s behalf.
In the call, exclusively obtained by the Guardian, the former Texas congressman criticizes Cruz for missing a vote on Tuesday on a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul says of Cruz’s decision: “That’s not the type of leadership we need in the White House.” He adds: “I am Ron Paul, asking you to support real liberty-minded leadership and help elect Rand.”
Cruz has long been trying to woo over the type of libertarian-oriented Republican who overwhelmingly backed Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. He has gone out of his way to boast of his support for auditing the Fed on the debate stage and rolling back NSA surveillance while attacking neoconservatives in his own party who Cruz claims about pursuing military conflict with Iran are overeager. As a result, the senator from Texas has been able to make significant inroads in the liberty wing of the Republican party, in particular, among more socially conservative libertarians.
A Cruz adviser told the Guardian: “Rand is always going to have support among the liberty vote. But we have a significant number of liberty voters, which makes his case for candidacy weaker and what we have been able to do – which he hasn’t – is to compete in other lanes [sections of party support].”
However, by skipping the vote on auditing the Fed, Cruz risks jeopardizing some of the credibility he has built in this faction of the Republican party. Auditing the Federal Reserve has long been an animating cause of Paul and his supporters and it has taken on major symbolic significance.
One prominent libertarian Cruz supporter in Iowa, Joel Kurtinitis, went so far as to write on Facebook: “God bless Ted Cruz, he’s a good man and I am doing my best to make sure he wins the Iowa Caucuses and the nomination. That said, I am deeply disappointed by his choice to miss the Audit the Fed vote. I think it was a terrible decision, both principally and pragmatically.”
The question is whether this missed vote will cause a deeper rift among the libertarian voters that Cruz is wooing. The senator has consistently been in the top two in polling in both Iowa and nationally while Rand Paul has been lagging far behind. However, it is clear, with Ron Paul off the sidelines, that the Rand Paul campaign will do all it can to win back the voters in Iowa who made up his father’s base in the Hawkeye State.
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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/13/ron-paul-rand-paul-ted-cruz-federal-reserve-vote
Ron's call audio:
https://soundcloud.com/user-21348970/ron-paul-audio
--------------------------------
Rand Paul’s presidential campaign has drafted in his father, libertarian icon Ron Paul, to directly attack Republican rival Ted Cruz in a robocall in Iowa, the first time the former presidential candidate has gone on the offensive on his son’s behalf.
In the call, exclusively obtained by the Guardian, the former Texas congressman criticizes Cruz for missing a vote on Tuesday on a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul says of Cruz’s decision: “That’s not the type of leadership we need in the White House.” He adds: “I am Ron Paul, asking you to support real liberty-minded leadership and help elect Rand.”
Cruz has long been trying to woo over the type of libertarian-oriented Republican who overwhelmingly backed Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. He has gone out of his way to boast of his support for auditing the Fed on the debate stage and rolling back NSA surveillance while attacking neoconservatives in his own party who Cruz claims about pursuing military conflict with Iran are overeager. As a result, the senator from Texas has been able to make significant inroads in the liberty wing of the Republican party, in particular, among more socially conservative libertarians.
A Cruz adviser told the Guardian: “Rand is always going to have support among the liberty vote. But we have a significant number of liberty voters, which makes his case for candidacy weaker and what we have been able to do – which he hasn’t – is to compete in other lanes [sections of party support].”
However, by skipping the vote on auditing the Fed, Cruz risks jeopardizing some of the credibility he has built in this faction of the Republican party. Auditing the Federal Reserve has long been an animating cause of Paul and his supporters and it has taken on major symbolic significance.
One prominent libertarian Cruz supporter in Iowa, Joel Kurtinitis, went so far as to write on Facebook: “God bless Ted Cruz, he’s a good man and I am doing my best to make sure he wins the Iowa Caucuses and the nomination. That said, I am deeply disappointed by his choice to miss the Audit the Fed vote. I think it was a terrible decision, both principally and pragmatically.”
The question is whether this missed vote will cause a deeper rift among the libertarian voters that Cruz is wooing. The senator has consistently been in the top two in polling in both Iowa and nationally while Rand Paul has been lagging far behind. However, it is clear, with Ron Paul off the sidelines, that the Rand Paul campaign will do all it can to win back the voters in Iowa who made up his father’s base in the Hawkeye State.
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