The party bases will forgive a lot of deviationism on economic issues so long as they are rock solid on social issues, affirmative action and the identity politics issues.
I was beginning to like Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, who seems to have solid views on issues like Robert Mugabe and political correctness.
Nevertheless, we endorse Eric Schneiderman because of his solid work on issues ranging from subway fares and abortion rights to crime prevention and campaign finance reform.
His involvement began after his narrow loss in the 1994 governor's race, which he ran as a tough-on-crime and solid-on-social-issues conservative who clumsily asserted that he would do "probably nothing" for blacks if elected.
He remains a classic example: a candidate who is bright, educated and knowledgeable, principled and thoughtful, solid on the issues, but operated solo, without the one thing a candidate most needs -- honest counsel for self-improvement.
Why? "Because the Green candidate here is an old comrade from the 60s, a trade union activist, anti-war, rock solid on most issues.
Xenophon, he says, has been rock solid on competition issues, consistently against the dominance of the supermarket giants, which resonates with an independent grocer who built a successful business from a three-lane supermarket in Adelaide in the mid-1970s.
"It remains to be seen of course, but my guess is that in order to get the nomination you're going to have to be pretty solid on these issues," said Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian research and advocacy organization in Washington.
"He's rock solid on these issues," he said.
"Rubio is solid on our issues," Stemberger said in a statement.
