Lesson learned: NRSC pledges to stay out of contested primaries

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Give credit where it’s due. After a strange decision to endorse Governor Charlie Crist in next year’s Florida primary race for the open Senate seat when Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio had already thrown his hat in the ring, the NRSC has learned something from the NY-23 debacle with Dede Scozzafava. Senator John Cornyn, chair of the NRSC, tells ABC News that the group will not spend any money in contested primaries, allowing each state’s Republicans to choose the best candidates to represent them in the 2010 general election:

With Republicans grappling with the fallout of an intra-party battle that may have cost them a House seat, the head of the Senate Republican campaign effort is making a pledge that may ease some of the anger being directed at the party establishment.

“We will not spend money in a contested primary,” Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told ABC News in a telephone interview today.

“There’s no incentive for us to weigh in,” said Cornyn, R-Texas. “We have to look at our resources. . . . We’re not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election.”

Cornyn did put the caveat on the pledge that limited it to open seats. The NRSC may still decide to protect Republican incumbents from primary challenges. However, I’m not sure where that would be a problem for the GOP in 2010. The biggest RINO, Arlen Specter, has already switched parties.