Posted on 09/25/2005 8:29:32 PM PDT by Anthem
YAKIMA — State Republicans have decided that 10 commandments are enough.
The Republicans' 11th commandment — Thou shall not speak ill of other Republicans — was repealed at a weekend meeting of the party's executive committee.
The Reagan-era rule was supposed to ensure a sort of Marquess of Queensberry rules for Republicans running against each other in primary elections. A campaign attack against a fellow Republican was punishable by a $5,000 fine and the loss of any support from the party.
It has been used to stop Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan from speaking at a state GOP convention, and it cost local candidates party support.
No one here could remember a time when someone paid a $5,000 fine. But over the years the rule has been criticized as a tool to protect party leaders' chosen candidates.
"This will remove a great cause of tension in the party," said state Party Chairman Chris Vance.
The vote at a closed meeting Friday night was strongly in favor of repeal, he said, but there are some who worry infighting will now break out.
In place of the commandment, Republicans are drafting a code of ethics they hope will keep their candidates on good behavior.
Also, yesterday, the party's central committee met here and overwhelmingly voted to endorse the November ballot measure that would repeal the recent gas-tax increase.
The party rule against attacking primary opponents was adopted in the 1980s. The biblical nomenclature came from something attributed to former President Reagan, who thought preventing infighting should be a commandment.
The state-party rule required candidates to sign a pledge to agree to "wage my campaign in a positive manner and observe both the spirit and letter of Reagan's '11th commandment': I will not, nor will I allow my supporters to attack or defame my Republican opponents either directly or by innuendo."
Some refused to sign
Two years ago, Reed Davis, the former King County Republican chairman, refused to sign the pledge in his run against U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt for the U.S. Senate nomination. Vance and other party leaders said that meant Davis could not speak at party events or receive any party support.
"No question it was used as a muzzle," said Doug Parris, who supported Davis. That was one of the things that led Parris and other conservatives in the party to start a new group, the Reagan Wing, which has been critical of the 11th commandment.
"It was an incumbent-in-perpetuity type thing," he said.
Prompted by complaints from Davis supporters, Vance appointed a committee to review the rule. The committee recommended that it be repealed.
"I think it is unenforceable," said Diane Tebelius, who headed the committee. She is the party's national committeewoman and is considering a run for the U.S. Senate nomination against Safeco CEO Mike McGavick.
She said voters can sort out what is an unfair attack. "The voters understand negative politics," she said.
Mike Gaston, the Clark County state committeeman, said he was the only member of Tebelius' committee who wanted to keep the 11th commandment. He said it has been misunderstood and exaggerated by some as a draconian rule to gag dissent.
"I don't want us beating each other up to the eventual disadvantage to whoever is in the general" election, he said.
He is optimistic, though, that an ethics code will do the job.
"I think we can mostly repair any loss of decorum with clear expectations. Most candidates are pretty reasonable people," he said.
Grant County Republican Chairman Tom Dent, who also served on the 11th commandment committee, supported repeal, but said candidates still need to know intraparty attacks "can cost you an election. It can cause you problems in the party."
Potential impact
The repeal could affect positioning for the 2006 Republican nomination to run against Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.
McGavick has formed an exploratory committee and is expected to formally announce soon. Some party leaders have said they want to avoid a primary and have sent strong messages to others that McGavick is the consensus choice.
"It appeared one candidate was being anointed," said King County state committeeman Bob Strauss.
But he said that for now, party leaders have backed off pushing McGavick and are letting the process work.
McGavick was here Friday night to speak to the executive committee and mingle with the central committee at a cocktail party.
He has been traveling the state to meet with Republicans and says it may have appeared that he was anointed because his Safeco job did not allow him to do a lot of groundwork before making his announcement.
Tebelius, who just returned from Afghanistan, where she was an election observer, said she will soon decide whether to run.
Former KIRO-TV news anchor Susan Hutchison also is considering a run. She just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. She said party leaders are staying out of the primary for now, but made it clear they want to avoid a contest and that the ability to raise a lot of money, or to self-finance a campaign, will be important.
Hutchison said she met with Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership, and he told her that D.C. Republicans expect McGavick to use his own money.
"Rick Santorum told me that and asked me, 'Are you going to self-finance?' " Hutchison said.
She said she is not. She disagrees that a contested primary would hurt the party.
"If you're not afraid that democracy produces the best candidate, then you should not be afraid of a contested primary," she said.
McGavick wouldn't say how much, if any, of his own money would go to the campaign.
"It is an important part of the political process to demonstrate that your fellow citizens are willing to support you," McGavick said.
He hopes that when he releases finance reports next month, the party will coalesce behind his candidacy.
"I'd like to show the kind of strength in organizing, endorsements, fund raising, to kind of say, 'I think I've demonstrated the ability to lead,' " he said.
As Reagan wrote:
"The personal attacks against me during the primary finally became so heavy that the state Republican chairman, Gaylord Parkinson, postulated what he called the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. It's a rule I followed during that campaign and have ever since.
And lets not forget, in the 1976 GOP primaries, Reagan had made several serious attacks against PresFord. Politics isn't for the faint of heart or the thin skinned.
A Sad Day
Not a Sad Day in Washington, the State. Our party here needed this.
Thanks, Bay.....I'll bet Chris Vance is planning a run for office now.....and wanted to be able tell HIS truth about any R who opposes him....IMHO.
Might as well face up to the truth. NO ONE hurts Republicans as badly as other Republicans! :(
Bay,You have Sam Reed and Slade Gorton pegged.
I think the Commandment only has to be followed when one is running for, or holding an office.
The rest of us can complain all we want. We deserve it! ; )
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