[Vision2020] Top G.O.P. Donors Seek Greater Say in Senate Races

[Art Deco]

 [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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February 2, 2013
Top G.O.P. Donors Seek Greater Say in Senate Races By JEFF
ZELENY<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/z/jeff_zeleny/index.html>

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — The biggest donors in the Republican
Party<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org>are
financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect
Senate
incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea
Party<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/tea_party_movement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>enthusiasts
who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s
efforts to win control of the Senate.

The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other
organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates
over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by
Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly
in primary races.

“There is a broad concern about having blown a significant number of races
because the wrong candidates were selected,” said Steven J. Law, the
president of American
Crossroads<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_crossroads/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
the “super PAC<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>”
creating the new project. “We don’t view ourselves as being in the
incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative
candidate who can win.”

The effort would put a new twist on the Republican-vs.-Republican warfare
that has consumed the party’s primary races in recent years. In effect, the
establishment is taking steps to fight back against Tea Party groups and
other conservative organizations that have wielded significant influence in
backing candidates who ultimately lost seats to Democrats in the general
election.

The first test of the group’s effort to influence primary races could come
here in Iowa, where some Republicans are already worrying about who will
run for the seat being vacated by Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat. It is the
first open Senate seat in Iowa since 1974, and Republicans are fearful of
squandering a rare opportunity.

The Conservative Victory Project, which is backed by Karl Rove and his
allies who built American Crossroads into the largest Republican super PAC
of the 2012 election cycle, will start by intensely vetting prospective
contenders for Congressional races to try to weed out candidates who are
seen as too flawed to win general elections.

The project is being waged with last year’s Senate contests in mind,
particularly the one in Missouri, where Representative Todd Akin’s comment
that “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy rippled through races across
the country. In Indiana, the Republican candidate, Richard E. Mourdock,
lost a race after he said that when a woman became pregnant during a rape
it was “something God intended.”

As Republicans rebuild from losing the White House race and seats in the
House and Senate last year, party leaders and strategists are placing a
heightened focus on taking control of the Senate next year. Republicans
must pick up six seats to win a majority.

Representative Steve King, a six-term Iowa Republican, could be among the
earliest targets of the Conservative Victory Project. He said he had not
decided whether he would run for the Senate, but the leaders of the project
in Washington are not waiting to try to steer him away from the race.

The group’s plans, which were outlined for the first time last week in an
interview with Mr. Law, call for hard-edge campaign tactics, including
television advertising, against candidates whom party leaders see as
unelectable and a drag on the efforts to win the Senate. Mr. Law cited Iowa
as an example and said Republicans could no longer be squeamish about
intervening in primary fights.

“We’re concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem,” Mr. Law said. “This
is an example of candidate discipline and how it would play in a general
election. All of the things he’s said are going to be hung around his
neck.”

Mr. King has compiled a record of incendiary statements during his time in
Congress, including comparing illegal immigrants to dogs and likening
Capitol Hill maintenance workers to “Stasi troops” after they were ordered
to install environmentally friendly light bulbs. But he rejected the
suggestion that his voting record or previous remarks would keep him from
winning if he decided to run for the Senate.

“This is a decision for Iowans to make and should not be guided by some
political staffers in Washington,” Mr. King said in an interview, pointing
out that he won his Congressional race last year even though President
Obama easily defeated Mitt Romney in Iowa. “The last election, they said I
couldn’t win that, either, and the entire machine was against me.”

The Conservative Victory Project will be a super PAC operating
independently of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It will
disclose the names of donors and raise money separately from American
Crossroads, officials said, because some donors were uncomfortable about
aggressively weighing in on Republican-vs.-Republican fights.

“It is a delicate and sensitive undertaking,” Mr. Law said. “Our approach
will be to institutionalize the Buckley rule: Support the most conservative
candidate who can win.”

But by imposing the rule of the conservative leader William F. Buckley, the
group could run afoul of Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment” to not speak
ill of a fellow Republican.

In Iowa, Cory Adams, the chairman of the Story County Republican Party,
said the criticism aimed at Mr. King was unfair and misdirected. He warned
of resistance from conservative activists if outside groups tried to
interfere in the Senate race.

“If he wants to run for the Senate, he should be allowed to run,” Mr. Adams
said of Mr. King, whose Congressional district includes Story County. “The
more people get to know him, the more they will like him.”

The retirement announcements last month from Mr. Harkin and Senator Saxby
Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, have created wide-open Senate races that
are expected to attract several prospective candidates. The Conservative
Victory Project is working to build a consensus with other groups on
candidates who have the strongest chance of winning.

Grover Norquist, who leads Americans for Tax Reform, a fiscally
conservative advocacy group that plays a role in Republican primary races,
said he welcomed a pragmatic sense of discipline in recruiting candidates.
But he said it was incorrect to suggest that candidates backed by Tea Party
groups were the only ones to lose, pointing to establishment Republicans in
North Dakota and Montana who also lost their races last year.

“People are imagining a problem that doesn’t exist,” Mr. Norquist said.
“We’ve had people challenge the establishment guy and do swimmingly.”

Sue Everhart, the head of the Georgia Republican Party, said she did not
object to outside intervention. But because open Senate seats do not come
along very often, she said,“we have six congressmen who want the job,”
which could create a messy and divisive primary regardless of the efforts
to control the race.

“The primary has to sort itself out in Georgia,” Ms. Everhart said. “That’s
what primaries are for. But we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball.
This is going to be a very important election, and it’s paramount that
Georgia keeps its Senate seat in Republican hands.”


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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