More on Broun’s march to the right on budget

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Broun voted for the Ryan budget in 2011, even though it spent far more than this year’s version. Broun said he did so as a show of support for the new House’s first big attempt at a Medicare overhaul. He missed the vote last year because a meeting ran long but said he would have been a “no.”

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta – also a likely Republican candidate for Senate – said Tuesday he was undecided and still needed to look at the details of the budget. Gingrey has voted for the GOP budget for the past two years.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah, another all-but-certain Republican Senate candidate, said he continues to support the Ryan budget.

Running to the right is typical for GOP primaries, but Kennesaw State University political science professor Kerwin Swint said Broun’s positioning is the kind of thing that gives some Republicans chills.

“The fear is twofold: First the fear is that Paul Broun is going to get nominated, and second of all that whoever does get nominated, like (last year’s Republican presidential nominee) Mitt Romney, is going to be pulled so far to the right that it makes them vulnerable,” Swint said. “That may be truer in other places than in Georgia, but conceivably that could still happen in Georgia. It’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

Since U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss announced in January that he would not seek re-election, Broun is the only declared candidate for his seat, though Kingston and Gingrey have strongly indicated they will run. U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell Republican, is publicly on the fence and has said he will decide in May. Price helped shape the budget plan as vice chairman of the Budget Committee under Ryan, and he supports it.

Others outside Congress, including former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, could enter the Senate race as well.

Gingrey said he likes the big goals and reforms in the Ryan plan, but “I want to look for anything in the details that would cause me some heartburn.”

Asked whether it made a difference that Broun was voting no, Gingrey replied, “I didn’t know that.”