KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On one floor at the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference over the weekend was a group raising $15 a person to oust the so-called “flimsy 15,” a group of Republicans who earlier in the week had voted against their party on controversial tax cut legislation.
On the floor below, Kansas City-area donors heard a message from a member of the Republican establishment calling for unity and a broadening of the GOP base. The rift between ideological purists and the party establishment was an undercurrent over the weekend as Republicans mulled paths to victory after losing statewide races in Missouri and the presidential race nationally in 2012.
“We’re not going to all agree on anything,” former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told the donors on Friday night at the party’s annual Spirit of Enterprise dinner. “If you’re looking for perfect candidates, you’re not gonna find it.”
Barbour said in a “big, broadly based party,” sometimes, “there are Democrats who are more conservative than some Republicans, and there are Republicans that are more liberal than some Democrats. There is nothing wrong with that.”
As he has before, Barbour, speaking at the private fundraising event, took a direct shot at the Club for Growth, who he said has “spent more money trying to beat Republicans in Republican primaries than Democrats in general elections.”
His comments came as the group’s Missouri chapter was launching an effort to target the 15 legislative Republicans who split with them when they voted against House Bill 253 last week. The group was present at the MRLC event (sanctioned by the Missouri Republican Party), where they were raising small-dollar contributions to target some of those members.
Bev Randles, chairwoman of the Missouri Club for Growth, said it is important to note that the organization is not a Republican organization and that they are simply looking to back candidates that “are fiscally conservative” and support tax cuts.
“The response for the $15 donations has been good at the moment,” she said. “People want to know that if a Republican is elected to office that person is going to vote with a fiscal conservative voting record.”
Of the 15 Republicans who voted against an override of Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of the tax cut bill, only one – Kirksville Republican Nate Walker – was endorsed by the Club for Growth. He won his race in 2012 with 57 percent of the vote. However, seven of the bill’s Republican opponents faced no General Election opponent, meaning there is a potential opportunity for conservatives to push a primary opponent in next year’s election.
Randles said the Missouri Club for Growth’s board of directors has not yet met to discuss who they will actively campaign against in Republican primaries.
“If there are other people in the districts who are conservative candidates who will do a better, more consistent job, we will certainly look at backing those candidates,” she said.
Reps. Elaine Gannon and Kent Hampton, however, had some of the slimmest margins of victory in 2012 — winning with less than 51 percent support in their districts. They will enter 2013 facing not only the threat of a challenge from the right, but also with the potential for a real fight on the left, as Democrats – backed by Sen. Claire McCaskill and Attorney General Chris Koster – double-down on an effort to take back seats in the General Assembly.
For those members, as well as the others looking to remove the target from their backs, Randles suggested, “it would be a good start for them to support whatever the next tax bill is,” adding that she hopes it is a “clean” bill so its opponents cannot tout “ambiguity” and possible problems with the language.
National fix?
On the national level, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said one of the ways to perhaps limit the intra-party fighting ahead of the presidential election would be to cut back on the length of the primary calendar, itself. He has proposed a plan to consolidate the primary calendar in order to move the Republican National Convention up to as early as late June or early July in 2016.
“I think our primary system is a total disaster,” Priebus said. “We’re not going to have a year round, slicing and dicing festival among our candidates. We’re going to shorten the primary calendar.”
“What we’re trying to do is protect our candidates and party, promote our brand, protect the platform, make true to our principles, and make a difference,” he added.
Priebus said that while he believes the Republican Party platform is solid, the way Republicans present their message has been “very poor.” Barbour, the night before, said comments like Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” and “self-deportation” lines proved to be harmful as the party hopes to expand its base to more middle class families and minority groups, particularly Latinos.
Priebus also suggested limiting the number of debates in order to limit the intera-party damage that comes from week after week of on-air battles.
“We’re going to have some rules in the party and the rules are going to be we’re going to have seven or eight debates,” he said.
Former U.S. Senator and 2012 Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, who also spoke at the event, said while he agreed with Priebus’s proposal to move up the Republican National Convention, he disagreed with the idea of debate sanctioning.
“I’m not particularly excited about the RNC sanctioning anything,” he said. “I don’t see anything out of the RNC that makes me excited they’re going to position themselves to put the most effective leader forward.”
A busy September
For the September of a non-election year, this month is proving to be busy for Missouri political observers. The Kansas City event, which drew 500 people, is just the first major Republican gathering in the state this month. The American Conservative Union will host a Conservative Political Action Conference in St. Louis on September 28.