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From
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January 29, 2007
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POLITICS
Ready To Rumble: From Right, Center,
Republicans Lining Up Targets For '08
Setting the stage for a possible string of 2008 primary clashes, leading strategists from the conservative and centrist wings of the Republican Party say they are ramping up their political programs and training their sights on many of the same congressional seats that Republicans lost in 2006.
Former Rep. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., now president of the Club for Growth, identified districts held by former Reps. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, Mark Foley, R-Fla., Jim Ryun, R-Kan., and Don Sherwood, R-Pa., as likely targets next year.
"Which of these guys was a liberal?" Toomey asked. "The kind of guy who is going to win that seat is a conservative who can draw distinctions with Democrats."
Toomey said all four, who were replaced by Democrats, were economic conservatives. (He noted that Foley, who resigned his seat amid a congressional page scandal, took moderate social stances, on which the Club does not judge candidates.)
The Club's PAC, which supports "pro-growth" conservatives, has become a major player in GOP primaries. During the 2006 elections, the PAC spent about $2.7 million and distributed another $7.4 million in bundled contributions to candidates it endorsed.
Republican moderates have fought the Club bitterly in GOP primaries, most recently in defense of former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. The Club last year defeated former Rep. Joe Schwarz in his Michigan primary after backing Rep. Tim Walberg, who won the general election.
Former Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., a moderate who lost his seat in the 2006 Democratic wave, now heads the Republican Main Street Partnership, a clearinghouse for centrists.
He said Main Street members, whose PAC spent about $485,000 and held fundraisers for moderates last cycle, plan to expand their impact in 2008.
"We're very serious about regaining seats and looking for new seats," Bass said. "Main Street is going to be a full-service operation. It is going to be strong on policy. It's going to be strong on political support."
To regain the majority, Bass said the party must court centrist voters, which he said make up nearly a quarter of the electorate and abandoned the GOP in 2006. He warned Republicans against making their accommodation in the Congress and using ideology as an excuse not to fight for the majority.
"This is not the time to be comfortable in the minority. It's an easy life. You can always vote no. You can remain ideologically pure," Bass said. "We as Republicans have to pick up the pieces and understand that our base has been there all along."
Many moderates represent swing districts and they fared poorly in 2006. In addition, to Chafee, Bass and Schwarz, moderates lost seats in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York and Arizona. Of the 13 incoming GOP freshmen, only Nevada Rep. Dean Heller joined the Republican Main Street Partnership.
Bass said traditional centrist GOP strongholds in the Northeast, including New York and Pennsylvania, will remain targets for Main Street. But he said his group will also look at such "takeable" districts as the one that had been held by Foley.
Perhaps no seat provides a clearer picture of the potential clash between GOP factions than the 2nd District in eastern Kansas that Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda won by defeating Ryun, an ardent conservative.
"Kansas is a state in transition. Clearly a moderate Republican could do well," Bass said.
Kansas moderates and conservatives have fought each other in recent election cycles, particularly on social issues. The intra-party disputes have alienated enough independents and GOP moderates to help elect Rep. Dennis Moore and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, both Democrats.
Free Enterprise Fund Executive Director Jim Terry said his group, which also backs conservatives, will be watching Democrats such as Boyda and Reps. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Bruce Braley and David Loebsack, both of Iowa, to see if they stick to campaign promises to vote for fiscal discipline.
"You've got 12 years of pent-up Democratic priorities and they are going to be under intense pressure," Terry said, noting that organized labor, trial attorneys and liberal groups have formed a coalition to put pressure on Democrats to support a liberal agenda.
Terry said Democrats used economic issues to woo moderates away from the Republican Party. He said fiscal discipline should be the glue that holds the Republicans together.
"That's the unifying element of fiscal conservatism," Terry said. "When the Republicans stepped away from fiscal conservatism, the moderates drifted away. If there's one thing the Republicans are supposed to do well, it's handling money."
Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., who leads the House Conservatives Fund, said his PAC does not oppose GOP incumbents in primaries, but it will back fiscal and social conservatives in other races.
He said his PAC, which is supported by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, will also go after former Republican-held seats now occupied by Democrats, including 61 seats in districts that President Bush has won.
"In an open seat, we're going to look for the most conservative electable candidate," Feeney said.
The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, said it is up to the Republican House and Senate campaign committees to determine when to get involved in primaries. Martinez, who fought against former GOP Rep. Bill McCollum for conservative voters in a bitter 2004 primary, said the contest prepared him for the general election.
"I always believed that the debate that takes place at the time of the election informs the voters and hardens the candidates," Martinez said.
But National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign of Nevada, who is defending 21 GOP seats in 2008, said he wants avoid a repeat of the Rhode Island primary, in which Chafee limped out of the primary and fell in the general.
"I don't mind a primary in an open seat, but I'm not crazy about them against an incumbent," Ensign said. He said he has not raised the issue with Toomey -- "Not yet, but we will."
Toomey rebutted as "patently ridiculous" claims made by GOP moderates that the Club for Growth's primary challenges have undermined Republicans in the general election. He noted Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., whom he nearly defeated in the 2004 GOP primary, went on to win his general election by 11 points.
Toomey also defended the Club's decision to back then-Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey against Chafee, who lost the seat last November to Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.
"Lincoln Chafee was going to lose that race no matter what. The numbers were very clear from the beginning," Toomey said, adding that Chafee voted like a Democrat. "He was a pseudo-Republican ... In a bad year for Republicans, the voters went for the real thing."
By Mark Wegner
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