Primaries for the Gang of 14

May 31, 2005

I realize that the far right is still simmering with rage over the Gang of 14’s compromise over judicial nominees, but it’s hard to believe right-wing activists and groups could be so upset that they’d seriously consider primary challenges for the Republicans involved in the negotiations.

And yet, here we are.

About a week after the group of lawmakers short-circuited Bill Frist’s plan to execute the nuclear option, talk of intra-party fights for lawmakers up for re-election is growing more intense.

* Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — The same day James Dobson lashed out at Graham on his nationally syndicated radio program, Thomas Ravenel, a businessman and former candidate for the Republican nomination to the state’s other Senate seat, said he would consider challenging Graham in a GOP primary in 2008. Ravenel told in-state reporters Graham is “the third senator from New York.”

* Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) — The day after the compromise was announced, Phil Burress, a far-right activist in Cincinnati who helped rally a successful campaign against same-sex marriage in Ohio, convened a conference call with more than 50 of the state’s most prominent social conservatives to discuss a primary challenge to DeWine next year. “The process has already started,” Burress said.

* John Warner (R-Va.) — Kenneth Cuccinelli, a far-right Republican state senator in Virginia, blamed Warner directly for helping lead the Gang of 14’s negotiations. Cuccinelli said Warner “cannot get through another election without a significant Republican challenger,” though he did not specify who would take on the task.

* Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) — Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey (R) has been considering a primary challenge to Chafee for a while anyway, and the Gang of 14 deal appears to have stoked the fires even more.

* Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) — Some Maine Republicans have grumbled for a while about Snowe’s centrism, but conservative state Rep. Brian Duprey responded to the Gang of 14 deal by saying, “[Snowe’s] constant ignoring of her Republican base has alienated many who would like a real Republican to vote for; I am exploring giving Republicans a candidate that they can feel good about voting for knowing that their interests would truly be represented in Washington.”

This leaves Maine’s Susan Collins and Arizona’s John McCain as the only two Republicans in the Gang of 14 to not, at a minimum, generate discussions about primary fights. Timing probably has a lot to do with this — Collins isn’t up again until 2008 and McCain, if he seeks re-election, won’t see his current term end until 2010.

Part of me is convinced this is a lot of hot air. The far right may be sincere about its outrage now, but there’s just no way they’ll be able to keep up this level of intensity 13 months from now as part of an effort to take on incumbent Republican senators — all because of one procedural vote that generally won praise nationwide.

But stranger things have happened. The GOP activist base harbors grudges and demands unfailing loyalty to the conservative cause. I see these primary threats as nonsensical, but the fact that such talk is so prevalent speaks volumes about the modern right’s tolerance for dissent.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if some of the rabid right-wing challenges won in the primary, only to go down to crushing defeat in the general election…..?

  • Re: Olympia Snowe

    Olympia Snowe may be challenged in the primaries but the chance of a successful challenge is nil. Rep. Brian Duprey is an embarassment – the Daily Show recently focused on his bill prohibiting abortions if embryos tests positive for the “gay” gene.

  • Rep. Brian Duprey is an embarassment – the Daily Show recently focused on his bill prohibiting abortions if embryos tests positive for the “gay” gene.

    Tom Coburn and Sam Brownback are also embarrassments, as are a number of Republican House Members (Tom DeLay being the paradigmatic case), but that didn’t stop them running and winning. I know that Maine is not in the South, but the Republican Party nationwide seems to lack the gene for shame.

  • Quixotic, intentionally extremist campaigns such as those evidently under consideration here represent great news for progressive (or at least, anti-reactionary) forces on several different levels. Democrats should look to nationalize the 2006 elections, shifting the terrain from terror and Bush’s supposed “likeability” to the more favorable ground of pocketbook issues and cultural tolerance. Though it might not sit all that well with us as partisans, the Republican members of the Gang of 14 generally won’t take the lead in undermining the character of the country; their theoligarchically inclined “primary opponents” would, and enthusiastically at that. Pointing out their extremism, whether or not toward the goal of keeping the Snowes and Grahams in office or beating their hard-right challengers, is a great political opportunity; pointing out the difference between these rational centrists and the unhinged views of DeLay, Santorum et al would be a fine thing too.

    So I say: Run, freaks, run!

  • The far right has used the primary system to its advantage, stacking the decks in their favor by any means to muscle out moderates. In the parts of this country where being the Republican candidate means you’re just about a shoe-in to get elected, the primaries are where the king-making occurs.

    Democratic war rooms need to step up the heat on the far right primary candidates to make sure they don’t get their party’s nod. The Dems would benefit by competing against moderate Republicans that aren’t solely harping about social issues to the detriment of really running this country.

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