Posted on 03/30/2005 11:39:12 AM PST by Gipper08
The budget showdown this month, in which fiscal hawks forced House GOP leaders to support an anti-spending measure, made Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) a contender for Speaker, Capitol Hill insiders say.
Pence’s chances of becoming the next Speaker are a long shot, but the fact that some are mentioning his name suggest that Pence’s political star is on the rise.
A senior House Republican aide said Pence, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman who is in his third term in Congress, “is a guy who knows how to maximize media exposure. His abilities [at the RSC] clearly have strengthened his position.” Pence and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), an RSC member who sits on the House Budget Committee, led the fight for a more pared-down budget and are spearheading fundamental change in congressional budget crafting.
Other members, including Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Virgil Goode (R-Va.), credited Pence with standing up for the conservative wing of the party during the budget battle.
Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who sat on the Budget Committee and now runs the Club for Growth, said conservatives were energized by the budget showdown. Along with Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas.), House Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.), Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and Rep. Tom Reynolds (N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Ryan said, he expects Pence to be a contender for a leadership spot.
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) has also been mentioned as a possible Speaker. Some on Capitol Hill say other lawmakers may jump into the high-profile race when Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) resigns.
Ryan said Hastert has no heir apparent and suggested that the departure of Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), tapped by President Bush to be the nation’s trade representative, has left the pool of would-be Speakers a little smaller.
While Pence spokesman Matt Lloyd stressed that the congressman is not using the RSC as a platform to propel himself into the leadership, other House Republican lawmakers and aides said the Indianan had benefited politically from his chairmanship.
What’s more, since taking over the RSC in January, Pence has begun calling the 100-member caucus the “majority of the majority,” which some Republicans say is meant to send a signal to his colleagues that Pence plans to run for a leadership office.
Other Republicans stressed that conservatives were returning to their “first principles.”
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), a member of the class of 1994 who helped the GOP retake the House, said he’d like to see one of his classmates succeed Hastert when the Speaker steps down, which Republicans expect will happen in 2006 or 2008.
The senior House Republican aide, referring to the budget battle, in which Pence and other RSC members went head to head with DeLay, added: “The most recent event had little or nothing to do with this budget. It had everything to do with the last two and a half years of the conservatives dealing with the leadership in good faith and getting screwed.”
Some Republicans have grumbled that Pence’s immediate predecessor at the RSC, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), was more intent on serving the leadership than the conservative cause. In exchange for helping GOP leaders shepherd bills through Congress, these Republicans say, Myrick was awarded a seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Myrick spokesman Andy Polk rejected that assertion.
Pence fought for the RSC measure to distinguish himself from Myrick and ensure he would not be a mere “figurehead,” the senior House aide said.
Democrats have derided the RSC measure, which is meant to slow spending, as ineffectual. Flake called the measure “a baby step” while praising Pence for his leadership.
Still, Pence faces some serious challenges in his race to the top. He lacks the seniority of other members and has given far less money to Republican candidates. While the Senate is a much different animal than the House, Sen. Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) lack of seniority did not block his rise to majority leader.
However, raising money is a major part of moving up the House GOP ranks. Cantor’s political action committee, ERICPAC (Every Republican Is Crucial PAC), for example, raised $1.4 million and doled out $515,300 to 98 candidates in the last election cycle, according to figures released by his office. Those numbers don’t include the hundreds of thousands of dollars Cantor’s campaign gave to the Virginia Republican Party, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and other candidates.
Similarly, Reynolds’s TOMPAC (Together for Our Majority PAC) raised $1.9 million in the 2004 cycle and gave just over $900,000 to 115 candidates, spokesman Mike Brady said. Republicans added that Reynolds has acquired many allies as the NRCC head.
By contrast, Pence’s Principles Exalt a Nation PAC raised $71,000 in 2003-2004 and gave $32,500 to “a couple dozen candidates,” said the PAC’s director, Ron Arnold. In the 2006 cycle, Arnold said, the PAC hopes to raise $100,000.
Also, warned David McIntosh, who held Pence’s seat in Congress from 1994-2000 and described himself as a “good friend” of the congressman, the RSC chairman already has attracted the jealousy among his colleagues that is encountered by rising stars.
Craig Ladwig, director of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a conservative, Indianapolis-based think tank headed by Pence in the mid-1990s, portrayed him as a thoughtful policymaker well versed in free-market economics as well as a shrewd tactician.
Addressing a Republican group in Beverly Hills late last week, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) offered some insight into the uphill battle the RSC chairman will face in seeking to revamp the budget process — a process that Pence, Hensarling, Toomey and others have said must be changed if Republicans are to achieve the goals they set for themselves in the Contract With America, the centerpiece of the 1994 campaign.
“The capital is a conspiracy of timidity and caution,” Gingrich told the crowd at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Forget Speaker, we need a President!
Pence in 2008!
Mike Pence is the next Reagan! By my count he already has 80 HARD supporters in the house.Getting the next thirty will be difficult.It might be easier being a conservative running for President,than a conservative running for speaker!
Please put me on your "Ping" list!
Gotta say I like Mike Pence.
What is his stance on LIFE?
OUTSTANDING!
Bump to the top.
But only if I am allowed to support a real conservative. ;-)
Go Mike Pence!
Not if FR is any guide. It doesn't seem that he is appreciated here.
No one talks about Pence now,But I bet if he sold out and voted for medicare then everyone at FR would love him.
If he intends to run, let me know. I will push him for Massachusetts...long shot I know but I despise Romney and don't want to see him get the nod.
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