The Tale of Two Candidates: David Harmer and Brad Goehring
Brad Goehring gazing over the crosses that symbolize our fallen heroes.
It’s interesting to me the differences that are emerging between two of the CD-11 candidates Brad Goehring and David Harmer.
I’ve been watching the Harmer campaign for quite some time and I notice that David Harmer rarely speaks for himself. Whether it’s through his facebook page or his campaign mailers, David Harmer keeps a distance. I’m not sure if it’s because his handlers are afraid that he’ll make a mistake or what. He has ran his entire campaign so far on being a “Reagan Republican”. That and “true conservative” or “real conservative” are really what all Republican’s are running on this election. But for David Harmer, it’s more than that. He is running on the quotes and words of Reagan and top Reagan officials but not his own. His facebook page is littered with quotes from Reagan, Ed Meese or the like.
Contrast that with Brad Goehring who talks with his facebook “friends” almost daily and has original posts and status updates quite frequently. Brad Goehring isn’t afraid to make himself available to the public even if that means strong ridicule from the extreme left which happens on a daily basis.
David Harmer uses great quotes like:
“Ronald Reagan would be disturbed about the expansion of the power of the federal government, the intrusion into people’s lives like this Obama health care program, appalled by the increase in federal spending…” – Edwin Meese
Quotes like that are great. I totally agree with Edwin Meese. The idea is to put up quotes like this so people continue to associate Harmer with the Reagan crew. I think for a lot of kool-aid drinkers it works. There are a lot of people who are great at working people’s minds like this…can you say Hale-Bopp? Can you say Branch-Dividians? I’m not saying that Harmer is a cult leader…so don’t start twisting my words. What I am saying is certain people know how to get into people’s minds to get them to feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I believe this is what Harmer is doing. I could write you a great article telling you where I was exactly when Ronald Reagan gave one of his well known speeches. I can tell you how great I felt at the time and I bet you that I would have you feeling warm and fuzzy inside by the time you finished reading it. The bottom line is I’m not Ronald Reagan and neither is Harmer. Harmer is his own fallible guy….so stop drinking the kool-aid and wake up.
“So who is the true Harmer,” you ask? Take a look at my past articles and you may start seeing who he is. In fact my last article called “The David Harmer Puzzle” puts a lot of his pieces together. An interesting thing that has recently come to mind is their patriotism. I’m not questioning Harmer’s patriotism but he doesn’t wear it on his sleeve like someone who I want representing me. I’ve watched all four of the candidates all memorial day weekend. As of 8pm on Memorial Day, all of the candidates EXCEPT Harmer wrote something about our fallen and thanking them for their sacrifice. When it comes to the two top candidates, here is what I’ve seen with regards to their facebook updates.
On Saturday, in his own words Brad Goehring posted:
“We live in the land of the free ONLY because of the brave!”
On Saturday David Harmer bragged about an endorsement he received (but failed to mention that it was drawn out of a hat). If you don’t believe me about the hat read the South San Joaquin Republican President Frank Aquila’s letter that just went out on 5/31/10. Or you can read my article that exposes the CRA shenanigans that took place.
On Sunday Brad Goehring spent his entire day celebrating our nations heroes at Woodward Park in Manteca. I know this because I was with him watching him talk to vets and making himself available to the voters. Before leaving for the celebration, Brad Goehring posted:
“I will fight socialism with our Constitution relentlessly to ensure those who sacrificed with their lives in the name of freedom and liberty were not sacrificed in vain! WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!”
Brad didn’t even brag about the fact that he was going to the Memorial Day celebration and I am glad he didn’t. Memorial Day is not something to politicize.
On Sunday David Harmer’s wall was blank.
On Monday (Memorial Day), in his own words Brad Goehring posted:
“I was humbly honored yesterday to stand beside the gold star father of Michael D. Anderson Jr – U.S. Marine Corp May 1983 – Dec 2004. His son wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America with his life. THAT IS HONOR! During a ceremony he whispered to me that each morning he wakes up he is reminded it is …Memorial Day. May God bless the men and women and their families in service.”
On Monday David Harmer took the opportunity to brag, in my opinion, about the fact that he finally made it to a Memorial Day celebration…but still nothing about the fallen:
“At the Danville Memorial Day Celebration! Come say hello.”
David Harmer couldn’t you have at least found a great quote from Reagan regarding Memorial Day? After all Memorial Day is one of our greatest holidays.
This is the San Joaquin GOP booth but with the three Harmer signs you would think it was the Harmer booth. One in the front, one hanging on the left side, and one in the back that would make it's way to the front later on in the day.
We would have NO OTHER holidays if it wasn’t for our brave! Is it because you don’t know how to talk about such great things or because you are afraid that if you did win the primary that McNerney would somehow paint you as a patriot in the general?
I want to appeal to you the reader. This election is critical. We have a guy who is running on the coat tails of Ronald Reagan but we don’t know what he really thinks himself? He is also relying on the backing of the local GOP because they recruited him and that’s who they decided they want. (See photo) You gotta love the big party establishment right? And then there is a great patriot in Brad Goehring who knows what to say and when to say it. And when he says it, it shows the true character of BRAG GOEHRING. Not of some other guy. He is a farmer from this district who has always lived here. He is someone who loves God and touts his pro-life stance. I overheard him telling someone: “I’m 45 years old but have been going to my church for 46″. He doesn’t need a soundbite from Reagan or a quote from Edwin Meese. He is a genuine guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time like both you and I. He touts his pro-gun stance by proclaiming that he is the only candidate to have a concealed carry permit.
I actually just started laughing out loud thinking about David Harmer shooting a gun.
(Updated: Since writing this David Harmer finally penned something as Memorial Day was coming to a close. In the interest of fairness I needed to add this update. But it wasn’t until 9pm on Monday night that he finally wrote something halfway patriotic. 9pm? Really? It’s almost as if it was an after-thought. Was it?).
Written by John Heida
Originally posted at http://www.rtamerican.us and written by John Heida. John Heida is not paid by any campaign and is not paid by Conservative New Media. He is only a guest author and has his own opinions which you can find on his website at http://www.rtamerican.us. The views expressed in this article are John Heida’s personal opinions only and are meant for informational and entertainment purposes only. John Heida does not allege any facts, cast aspersions on anyone, or make any claims about what he says here, or in any of his other columns on Conservative New Media or on his site. Again, these are only John Heida’s own personal opinions and his First Amendment protected exercise thereof. These opinions are not necessarily the views of Conservative New Media and Conservative New Media does not endorse or represent or warrant any of the content of his articles in any way and is not responsible for them.
7 Comments
John, just because David waited until 9 pm to write something does not mean it was an afterthought. On the contrary, David and I and our children spent the morning at the Danville Memorial Day celebration (tweeting his location is bragging? how’s that again?), and he took notes of every speech — as he usually does. We were honored to meet with many veterans there, and we spent the rest of the day with family from out of town.
Your insinuation that David is somehow not patriotic because he doesn’t write something on his Facebook wall at a certain time on Memorial Day would be laughable if it weren’t so offensive. David’s brother is a commander in the U.S. Navy, and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world. My father and uncles were in the Navy and served in WWII. I don’t have to prove our patriotism to you, nor do I have to prove to you, a Goehring employee, our committed support of the military and the heroes who have given their lives for our freedom. We don’t post pictures of David gazing over crosses, John, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t do it. David just doesn’t spend his life on FB like Brad does.
Oh, and your bizarre comment that David “rarely speaks for himself”? I had to stop laughing out loud, because I was waking up the kids.
By the way – what is the name of the church where BG attended for 46 years?
If it is where I have been told….the people there do not know him.
Good one Susan! Is that all you got?
Well, I dont actually believe that was David Harmer’s wife. But I do love how you (John) posted a response to Susan’s comment because it was so vague and easy to make fun of. You did however, ignore my comment because you have no rebuttal. As I clearly stated before, I am not a fan of David Harmer. I worked for him and tried on multiple occasions to speak to him and he ignored me in favor of speaking to potential rich donors to his campaign. I can however also say the same for EVERY single candidate that was running for this nomination. They ALL ignore the younger guys (most likely because we are usually students with little money to donate, I am 25 BTW). If Harmer wants to be taken seriously he should reach out to the youth and actually pay attention to us.
Josh I wasn’t trying to ignore you. I was letting you make your point. I do also believe it was Elayne Harmer because I’ve emailed back and forth with her since.
With regards to the candidates not paying attention to the young? That is probably true most of the time. I helped with a campaign when I was 18 years old and didn’t really feel appreciated. I can, however, tell you how I saw Brad stop and talk to a college student at the Memorial Day service in Manteca and I admired that. I can only tell you what I witnessed. My knowledge of Brad is that he is a genuine guy.
Hell Yeah….Just what i was hunting for….it took me a while but you hit the nail on the head…wonderful read…A+
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