Tucker Carlson was Fox News‘ biggest draw, of that, there is no doubt. While Fox continues to slump in the ratings from Tucker Carlson’s exit, they have announced who will temporarily replace him. Lawrence Jones is considered a rising star at Fox, and I wish him well.
Tucker Carlson’s first video since the split with Fox News garnered over 22 million plays on the first day on Twitter. That’s about half of the total cable news viewership for that day. One man did that.
Naturally, people are wondering where Tucker will land next, if he chooses to land anywhere, or go out on his own. Former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly thinks Tucker Carlson should do that latter.
While The Blaze, OANN, and Daily Wire have publicly said they would love to have Tucker Carlson join them (no kidding), almost no one actually thinks he would do so.
According to TMZ, upstart News Nation is very interested in hiring Tucker Carlson. The issue for News Nation is the money. Can they afford him? Most indicators say they can’t but they are so serious about making a move for Tucker Carlson that their executive team flew to NYC to discuss the move internally.
Disgraced former CNN host Chris Cuomo now works for News Nation making just 1/6 of his CNN salary. Tucker Carlson would demand much more. Former Fox News personality can also be seen on News Nation regularly.
Most Fox News viewers, however, are not watching News Nation. They do watch Newsmax. Many feel that Newsmax would be the natural landing spot for Tucker Carlson. They are a growing network that Tucker Carlson viewers could easily get comfortable with. It’s not outlandish to think former Fox News viewers would permanently adjust their dial to Newsmax if they landed Tucker Carlson. It has happened before.
Newsmax is reportedly ‘beating down Tucker Carlson’s door‘ to get him on their network. They allegedly even floated the idea of Tucker programming the entire channel, not just his show. I’m not sure I can trust that report, but it could be true. It’s more likely they offered Tucker a chance to pick his lead-in show to help drive ratings. Newsmax also likely has the resources to pay Tucker a salary he’d be comfortable with.
Of the traditional networks, Newsmax makes the most sense. I’m just not sure that it makes the most sense for Tucker Carlson. Megyn Kelly has a valid point that he could easily strike out on his own. To do so, he’ll probably need to establish himself on Rumble unless he self-hosts everything. YouTube isn‘t going to let a free-range Tucker Carlson say what he wants to say during an election cycle.
One thing is clear … everyone is talking about Tucker Carlson. Not so for Don Lemon.
He asked me if I would follow him as mayor, I said, by the time you’re done being mayor, Republicans will be so sick of Democrats inGoshen no Democrat could get elected.
Alan Kauffman – Former Mayor – Goshen, IN
Alan Kauffman served as Mayor of Goshen, IN for more than 18 years. Not bad for a guy who was convinced no Democrat could get elected in Goshen after Mayor Puro.
So how did Kauffman overcome the odds? How did he become mayor when he was convinced it wasn’t possible for a Democrat to get elected?
“One night I said, well if something happened that you left office, then I was caucused in and I could run as an incumbent, I’d think about it.”
Alan Kauffman – Former Mayor – Goshen, IN
Listen to the audio below.
In March of 1997, Puro resigned and Kauffman was, indeed, easily caucused in by the Democratic Party. From there, he ran for mayor as the incumbent in 1999 and won. Incumbents hold a significant advantage to be reelected. The rest is history.
Kauffman is currently a Goshen School Board member and embroiled in an election scandal for mishandling election funds and possible illegal campaign contributions.
Fast forward to 2015. After mentoring Jeremy Stutsman for over 8 years, Kauffman had his hand-picked successor. Stutsman would defeat Republican Mary Cripe to be Goshen’s next mayor. Kauffman said he would have run again if he felt the next mayor would be a ‘flake.’
Stutsman ran unopposed in 2019 after his opponent, Republican Terry Snyder, 77, died unexpectedly just weeks before the May 7 primary election. In December of 2022, Mayor Stutsman announced he was running for his third term as mayor of Goshen.
At his public announcement that he would not seek reelection, Stutsman said:
“Over the next couple of weeks, between myself, the new mayor that … uh the person that I’m hoping will be the new mayor that’s announcing …”
Mayor Stutsman
Listen to the audio below.
More on who that person is shortly.
The mayor announcing they weren’t running for reelection right after announcing that they were caused confusion about the election.
Mayor Stutsman will remain on the May primary ballot. The Democratic party will then caucus a candidate to take Stutsman’s place for the November general election.
It’s hard to say how the GOP would have adjusted their strategy and candidate selection had they known Stutsman would not be running, but it’s safe to assume they would have taken a different approach.
It’s also safe to assume that the timing of Stutsman’s announcement prevented any Democrat candidate from announcing a primary run. Especially since it was too late to replace Stutsman’s name on the May ballot.
Once again, Goshen Democrats strategized to take the choice out of the people’s hands and hand-pick their successor for Mayor.
Elkhart City Councilman Aaron Mishler thinks this is a brilliant strategy. Frankly, it is brilliant albeit very shady, and underhanded.
Goshen election officials said Democrats would caucus to choose Stutsman’s replacement after the May primary. It’s only April and we already have the heir apparent.
Mayor Jeremy Stutsman has endorsed Gina Leichty as the candidate of choice to fulfill his term and run for office in the fall municipal election in 2023.
95.3 MNC
Democrats are expected to caucus for a candidate in May. Stutsman has estimated he will be done as mayor in June. The election is in the Fall.
The strategy is simple:
Announce you aren’t running for reelection late in the cycle to prevent candidates in your own party from running against your hand-picked successor.
Negatively affect the other political party’s strategy going into election season.
Give your hand-picked successor an almost certain win.
Rinse and repeat anytime there’s a changing of the guard.
To be clear, I’m not accusing anyone of breaking the law. The strategy is effective. Goshen residents need to decide for themselves if they feel cheated by this scheme.
Are Democrats ok with not being able to effectively run for mayor in the primary with a level playing field?
Are Republicans ok with effectively being shut out of a truly competitive electoral process by not knowing who they were running against?
Are Goshen voters ok with the electoral process being manipulated by local Democrats so that all eligible candidates don’t get a fair shot in the primary?
