Posted on 10/30/2002 4:42:06 PM PST by Utah Girl
Tom DeLay, to some extent, has been calling the shots for House Republicans since Newt Gingrich left Congress at the end of 1998. In that regard, things may not change much when the Whip replaces Dick Armey as Majority Leader, and his anointed — Reps. Roy Blunt (a conservative) and Deborah Price (a liberal) — move into top leadership spots.
Also mixing things up are the 20 to 35 new Republicans entering in 109th Congress. While the exact number is uncertain, there are 12 GOP House candidates who can already buy their tickets to Washington.
This group of politicians — who effectively won their seats by winning their primaries — range from moderate to conservative, from soft-spoken to firebrand, and from neophyte to veteran.
While the freshman class won't be devoid of liberal Republicans of the Connie Morella breed, none of the dozen shoo-ins will find himself at the far left of the party. More importantly, the class of 2002 will include a couple of lawmakers who could become the Right's standard bearers in a few years.
THE GREAT RIGHT HOPE
The brightest light among the rising freshmen is Steve King, who, oddly enough, comes from Iowa (which has given us liberal Republicans Greg Ganske and Jim Leach).
King is the Frankenstein of Iowa Democrats. Eager to weaken the Republican incumbents in redistricting, state Dems took all the conservative voters from three different congressional seats and dumped them into the 5th district. This pieced-together creation on the western third of the Hawkeye State will now give Washington a pro-life, anti-tax dedicated conservative congressman.
Pondering the relationship of man and the state while sitting atop a bulldozer a few years back, King developed his convictions on fiscal, economic and social issues — convictions that are unfailingly conservative.
King opposes abortion in all cases, providing no exception for rape or incest. On taxes, he sees only two downsides to a national sales tax: "you'll drive down stock for H & R Block and hurt real estate in D.C." he told me.
King, despite being unwavering in his dedication to limited government and conservative values, has risen in state Senate and had only success electorally. While not afraid to buck his party's leadership when it is selling out to the left, King is sharp enough and prudent enough to pick his fights. Expect to see him, much like Tom DeLay and Dick Armey, stand his ground but rise through the Republican ranks.
TEXAS TWO-FER
From Texas, four new congressmen will be elected, but Republicans John Carter and Mike Burgess are the two for whom the Nov. 5 election is a mere formality.
Carter is a tough "hanging judge" from Williamson County, who, if you believe the rumors, carries a gun beneath his robe. He won a crowded primary against bigger names because of overwhelming support in his home county.
The judge is conservative — touting himself as pro-life and pro-gun — but to date, he has no record on abortion. Texans who know him expect him to be a quiet, conservative vote. He won't buck Bush, neither to the right nor the left, and chances are he won't stay in town more than six or eight years.
Dr. Michael Burgess, like Carter, pulled off a primary upset, beating Scott Armey who was running for his father's seat. Young Armey was loved in D.C., but he made enemies back home. This opened the door for Burgess, who was handpicked by local powerbroker Jane Nelson. Nelson is the conservative hero in the Texas state senate, who is biding her time before she comes to Washington.
The word on the Texas street is that Burgess, a very friendly and personally conservative man, is Nelson's placeholder. During his stay here, Burgess could definitely get jerked around by lobbyists, interest groups, and donors. There is widespread suspicion that Burgess, regardless of his good intentions, is in over his head.
SOUTHERN SOLDIERS
One newcomer to Congress who will not feel overwhelmed is Alabama's Jo Bonner. Longtime aide and chief of staff to retiring Rep. Sonny Callahan, Bonner is described at the "consummate professional."
Bonner, to lay the groundwork for his campaign, moved back to the Mobile district over five years ago and headed up one of the strongest constituent services shops in Congress. Unfortunately, a good portion of Callahan's services to his constituents involved using his high perch on the appropriations committee to bring home pork projects.
If Bonner lands a spot on appropriations, expect more of the same. Outside of a taste for spending, though, Bonner should be a strong conservative.
South Carolina conservatives, of late, are unhappy with State Rep. Gresham Barrett — for leaving the Palmetto State and coming to Washington. In the mold of Lindsey Graham, whom he will be replacing, Barrett is universally liked around the state capitol and in Republican and conservative circles. If the freshman class had an election for most popular, Barrett would win.
A Citadel alumnus, articulate and attractive, Barrett could quickly become one of the GOP's public faces. Described as a loyal lieutenant to the state's conservative house speaker, he led the fight for school choice in the education committee. Count Barrett as a solid addition to the caucus, and in exchange for Graham, it's a net gain.
In Tennessee, the name Marsha Blackburn is synonymous with the fight against Republican Governor Don Sundquist's income tax. The state senator was the most visible face and eloquent voice in the "Axe the Tax" movement from the moment Sundquist first called for the levy.
Blackburn's almost instant conservative fame was a pleasant surprise to Tennessee right-wingers who had quietly expected that she came from the Lamar Alexander wing of the party. Now a cult hero among taxpayers, Blackburn was the David to the Sundquist's Goliath.
Blackburn also has a strong record defending gun rights, and while abortion votes are rare in Tennessee, the state Right to Life chapter supports her.
RISING IN THE SUNSHINE STATE
Anyone who had a television in late 2000, when hearing the name Katherine Harris, expects to hear immediately thereafter, "Republican partisan" and a lot of more colorful phrases unfit for publications (although one, "Soviet Commissar," is fairly harmless to print).
The question, now that she is the heir apparent to retiring Rep. Dan Miller, is what kind of Republican partisan is Harris? One veteran conservative political reporter in town has allegedly said on occasion that you can tell what kind of Republican a congressman is by going into his office, looking at his wall, and seeing if he has a portrait Thomas Jefferson on his wall or a mug of Teddy Roosevelt.
Harris will be a Bull Moose Republican — she names T.R. (the modern father of the death tax, environmentalism, and interventionism) as her top hero. She will be faithful to the man whose 2000 presidential victory she safeguarded from Gore and his goons, but she will be no right-winger.
Harris opposes drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (as do almost all Florida lawmakers), opposes Social Security privatization and holds mainstream (read: big-government) views on education. She calls herself pro-life, but considers current abortion law just fine.
Nobody can doubt that the secretary of state cannot be bent by media pressure or even death threats, it's just too bad her unshakable convictions aren't positioned farther to the right.
State Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart used his perch at the head of the redistricting committee to draw himself into Congress. He and his congressman brother Lincoln are Cuban refugees and former in-laws of Fidel Castro. Lincoln describes Mario as the conservative brother, but that's not too hard to believe. The elder Diaz-Balart is a moderate Republican, sometimes wimping out on tougher votes.
Expect Mario to be a bit more conservative — a typical Florida Republican.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
The Republican freshmen-to-be from Arizona's 2nd and Pennsylvania's 18th have this much in common: they have dedicated their lives to helping children. Pittsburgh-area State Rep. Tim Murphy is a child psychologist who first got famous as radio's "Dr. Tim." Arizona's Trent Franks chaired a state House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation, and he also headed the cabinet-level Arizona Governor's Office for Children.
However, in public life, "helping children" means two different things to these men. To Murphy, it means what the media and politicians usually use it to mean: increased funding for health care and a "patient's bill of rights," both of which he has championed.
For Franks, it means ending abortion and providing school choice. Franks (a self-described "right-wing Republican") shepherded through the Arizona legislature scholarship tax credits — a program that has served as the model to similar federal and state initiatives. He will push this plan in Washington as his primary project — favoring such credits over vouchers for two central reasons: they are politically more feasible; and they do not carry as much the risk of welcoming government interference in private schools.
Murphy, while not a liberal, shows no allegiance to the principle of limited government — the union ranks here might not stand for it. Murphy will share the work ethic of Sen. Rick Santorum, and is on good terms with pro-lifers despite supporting state funding for contraception. Representing the most elderly congressional district outside of Florida, Murphy will also work to expand and increase Medicare benefits.
Franks, on the other hand, is more cut from the mold of Barry Goldwater. He may not end up, like his colleague Rep. Jeff Flake, on the short end of many 433-2 votes, but he is a dedicated conservative, and will do the work of the President.
Fiscally 100 percent and described as a "Family Research Council-type" on social policy, Franks will bring to Washington the kind of integrity you rarely find here, according to Arizona sources. He blends devout Christianity with fidelity to the Constitution and the founding principles. Franks has made no enemies in Arizona, even among liberals and Democrats, but he should expect that tolerance to fade away once he enters the national media scene.
THE QUESTION MARK
Michigan's Candice Miller will come to D.C. for lack of something better to do. Term-limited out of her secretary-of-state job, prospects for a governor run were obstructed by her party and made undesirable by unpopular Gov. John Engler's shadow. So the GOP legislature drew her a district where she will win easily.
A 48-year-old erstwhile sailor, Miller has a long record in public office where she has established herself as right of center, but she's never served in a legislative capacity. Consequently, she is a bit of a wild card. She's a solid administrator who gets good reviews on her leadership style, but DeLay will need to keep a close eye on Miller, not just for her first year, but as the 2006 statewide elections approach she could "grow" in office.
She has at least some ambition for a Senate or governor race down the line against Democrats Debbie Stabenow or Jennifer Granholm, and that should always make conservatives uneasy.
One story from 1994 should raise real doubts about her concern for the party. That year of the Republican revolution, Miller was elected Michigan's first female secretary of state, leaving vacant her post as Macomb County treasurer.
Her 1992 election to that countywide position was a breakthrough for Macomb Republicans, but her bewildering first move was to hire Democratic St. Clair Shores Mayor Ted Wahby as her chief deputy. When Democratic county officials moved to railroad Wahby through as Miller's replacement two years later (without even asking him to quit as mayor), Miller refused to go to the mat for her party and fight for a GOP or non-partisan appointment, despite no shortage of Republicans looking for that job.
Depending on whom you ask, 29-year-old Devin Nunes is a future conservative leader in Congress or the golden boy of moderate and prickly Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas. Nunes, in the primary for this brand new safe Republican seat, knocked off former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson, who had the backing of conservatives statewide.
Nunes's hearty endorsement from Thomas makes conservatives worry, but the former Agriculture Department aide calls for a fairly fiscal conservative plan (while stopping far short of King's national-sales-tax vision). On the abortion issue, Nunes grants exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. He says he opposes same-sex marriages.
Considering Nunes's shepherd — Thomas — he needs to be watched closely.
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The Freepers will love Him
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