5 day forecast
GOP cannibals strike again
Share with others:
You need look no further than Monday's headlines for a primer on why Republicans get themselves into trouble in national elections. After years in which prominent Republicans courted her to run for the Senate, the popular Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia announced that she will run for the Senate in 2014, when Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller may retire. She has statewide name recognition and a 70.27 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.
But, lo and behold, the Club for Growth -- which backed such stellar (not!) Senate candidates as Richard Mourdock in 2012 and Sharron Angle in 2010 and losers like Mark Neumann (who beat up eventual GOP nominee Tommy Thompson in the Wisconsin Senate primary) -- blasts Ms. Capito for voting for "big government."
It is unclear how many members the Club for Growth represents and how many, if any, are West Virginia voters. Among her supposed sins are voting for the budget of Rep. Paul Ryan, rather than the Republican Study Committee's budget, and for No Child Left Behind, which numerous conservative Republicans supported. It is no wonder that, in a state that has routinely sent liberal Republicans to the Senate, Ms. Capito's record would be not as conservative as a candidate from a deep-red state.
Close behind the Club for Growth was Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund, which also backed Ms. Angle and duds Ken Buck in Colorado and Christine O'Donnell in 2010. Its spokesman groused that Ms. Capito has a "pro-government, pro-Washington voting record."
Perhaps the tide may be turning on the groups that would rather fight than win. Brad Dayspring, a prominent Republican and communications director for Bush/Cheney 2000 in West Virginia (the first time a non-incumbent Republican won that state in over 70 years), told me, "It's terrible. The club is trying to destroy her; the people who brought us Richard Mourdock." Mr. Dayspring said, "Shelley Moore Capito is a strong woman, a great person and a smart, savvy leader. She's a strong voice for the people of West Virginia, which is why she is so well respected across the state."
At the moment, Ms. Capito doesn't have any opposition, so it is not clear that popping off against her will gain these groups any mileage (other than donations from people certain that the "insiders" are going to do them in). But it is emblematic of the struggle Republicans will have in electing popular candidates well suited to their states and districts so long as the test, according to those with a loud megaphone, is ideological purity.
First Published November 27, 2012 12:00 am
