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<div class="">February 2, 2013</div>
<h1>Top G.O.P. Donors Seek Greater Say in Senate Races</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/z/jeff_zeleny/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by JEFF ZELENY"><span>JEFF ZELENY</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — The biggest donors in the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Republican Party" class="">Republican Party</a>
are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect
Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/tea_party_movement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about the Tea Party movement." class="">Tea Party</a> enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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 <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/american_crossroads/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about American Crossroads." class="">American Crossroads</a>, the “<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Super PACs." class="">super PAC</a>”
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.” </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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.” </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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.” </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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.” </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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.” </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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.”
</p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“People are imagining a problem that doesn’t exist,” Mr. Norquist said.
“We’ve had people challenge the establishment guy and do swimmingly.”
</p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>
“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.”
</p>
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