PHILLY.COM / AP: … Last month, House Speaker Sam Smith penned an angry public letter chastising a political group that raises money and attacks sitting Republican lawmakers who its leaders view as insufficiently willing to break the “iron triangle of career politicians, bureaucrats and big government lobbyists.”
This month, the Republican Party, including top GOP senators, have rolled up their sleeves in a bruising airwave fight to try to prevent a key financial supporter of that group from winning a Senate seat in a March 18 special election.
“The establishment of the Republican Party has never faced a sustained and … credible threat from anti-establishment conservatives,” said Leo Knepper, executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania and the target of Smith’s letter. “A lot of the limited government, fiscally conservative taxpayer groups that have some sustained level of activity is really putting pressure on them.” … (more)
