The Campaign Spectator: Linda Smith Sticks Out
Dealey, Samuel
THE CAMPAIGN SPECTATOR by Samuel Dealey Linda Smith Sticks Out W hen Rep. Linda Smith announced last May that she would challenge Democratic incumbent Patty Murray for Washington's Senate seat in...
...partly reflect the divisions within her own state's GOP, whose conservative base has faced a backand-forth struggle between libertarian-leaning Reagan conservatives and the SAMUEL DEALEY is assistant managing editor ofThe American Spectator...
...Across the Capitol, Senate Republicans groaned at the prospect...
...Like Perot followers...
...She hurt more than she helped...
...Linda Smith rolled into the capital with the Republican Revolution of 1994, but it took an unprecedented set of circumstances to get her there...
...Reveling in her underdog, outsider status, she has likened herself to the biblical figure Daniel, trapped in the lion's den of Babylon...
...Bayley, who co-chaired Washington GOP chairman Dale Foreman's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, is said to be very close to Don Hodel, co-director with Randy Tate of the Christian Coalition...
...Several Senate Republicans, among them majority leader Trent Lott and McConnell, encouraged other Washington reps to run: George Nethercutt and Rick White both declined...
...In late January, meanwhile, two senior-level staffers, Scott Hildebrand and Jennifer Brzusek, abruptly quit Smith's campaign...
...It's embarrassing...
...His chances of attracting independent voters are also greater...
...Nonplused, Smith has continued to rankle the leadership...
...Smith's problems in D.C...
...It was a laundry list," said a state activist...
...She has lost her subcommittee chairmanship...
...Her name was quietly dropped as a sponsor from the House campaign finance reform bill (now referred to as the Shays-Meehan Bipartisan Clean Congress Act, the companion to the Senate's stillborn McCain-Feingold) when it was reintroduced in the 105th Congress...
...Said a senior Republican source, "She has treated McConnell with no class...
...Happily...
...Republicans also cite Smith's impolitic remarks about congressional colleagues...
...What does God say when the leaders don't follow His word...
...Smith has also angered Mitch McConnell, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign committee and a staunch opponent of campaign finance reform...
...Christian Right since 1984...
...Smith made clear she wasn't a team player early on...
...The letter was slipped underneath the hotel room doors of the Washington delegates—but not before Smith had passed it along to the media...
...She brought nothing to the table in the form of bipartisan compromise," said a knowledgeable committee source...
...Smith, however, couldn't care less about being a Washington insider...
...Smith is also regarded as a tough campaigner, and even her severest detractors acknowledge "her odds to win a primary are good...
...After her 1996 re-election, many of her top aides quit in what one former staffer characterizes as a "mass exodus...
...She's a pariah," another source said...
...Then the GOP turned to politicians and activists at the state level: John Carlson (a former conservative radio talk show host), Dan McDonald (the State Senate majority leader), Dale Foreman (now the state GOP chairman), and Donald Sutherland (a county legislator who withdrew in January...
...Their first hope was Dunn, who pulled her name from consideration after being elected vice-chairman of the House Leadership Conference...
...He has not held public office since the seventies and is relatively unknown beyond the state's political elite...
...With no serious primary opposition readily apparent, her campaign war chest will be full...
...The left-wing Progressive recently rated her among the five "dimmest" lights in Congress—that's out of 485, a majority of whom are Republicans...
...After the millionaire Republican front-runner Tim Moyer—hounded by allegations of luxury-tax evasion—dropped out of the race two weeks before the primary, Smith's grassroots supporters launched a successful write-in campaign...
...None committed...
...Her Republican opponent—even if it's Bayley—will be strapped...
...Washington etiquette being what it is, criticisms whispered privately to friends and reporters are one thing (case in point: none of her detractors would go on the record for this article), but Smith airs herspublicly...
...But many felt she took it too far when she attacked McConnell...
...And not a single bill Smith has introduced has passed—a pretty good indication of weak political clout...
...The large field had a dilutive effect and Craswell won the GOP primary with barely a quarter (Continued on page 76) The American Spectator • April 1998 63 Campaign Spectator (Continued from page 63) of the vote...
...But the picture isn't entirely bleak for Smith...
...Finally, in February millionaire businessman Chris Bayley announced his candidacy after a cordial tour of the House and Senate hallways led by McConnell, the Senate's king-maker...
...Had Foreman won the nomination, political strategists were predicting a GOP win...
...Smith might as well be back home on top of Mt...
...Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash...
...Helens...
...And for that, Smith has waged a holy war against special interest money...
...Smith's unorthodox victory so impressed the House leadership that she was given a plum spot chairing the House Small Business subcommittee on Tax and Finance...
...04 76 April 9 9 8 • The American Spectator...
...What happens to the nation...
...It hurt...
...This will mean money—lots of it...
...The proper place for her to protest is inside the Capitol, on the floor...
...She went on to narrowly unseat the liberal three-term congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld in the general election...
...And this seems to be the Republicans' dilemma with Smith: They concede that she steadfastly remains true to the values of those that elected her, but ostensibly "members come [to D.C.] to effect change, not just to shout from the top of a mountain," as one Washington State aide put it...
...He's one belligerent person who likes the laundering of political money," Smith openly told reporters...
...Republicans are also concerned that Smith is simply unelectable in a statewide race...
...And if all else fails, Bayley can callon his personal fortune...
...Foreman was a solid Reaganite...
...If you go through [the Bible] and see what He says that all leaders are to do, we're never to take anything from anybody who comes before us for judgment...
...62 April 1998 • The American Spectator Although nearly a quarter of her campaign funds came from PACs in 199+ Smith experienced an epiphany in 1995...
...for Speaker, a move some thought a bit over the top—not to mention hypocritical: Though she opposed Gingrich on ethics grounds, Walker became a lobbyist within days of leaving office...
...In addition to having every PAC lining up behind him, Bayley's supporters tend to be wealthier than Smith's: Though Smith may have more donors, Bayley could outpace her by the sheer size of his individual contributions...
...In her first month in Congress, Smith was among the handful of renegade freshmen who, defying the leadership on the balanced budget amendment, pushed their own version that would have required a super-majority for all tax hikes...
...Rather than graciously bowing out and explaining her antipathy towards special interest involvement, Smith disassociated herself from the event in a nasty letter attacking the Washington delegation and Philip Morris...
...Sources say Hildebrand approached Bayley's team for possible work within a week of his departure, but Bayley declined to hire him for propriety's sake...
...The problem with Linda," said one senior GOP aide, "is that we never know where she stands...
...Along with Barbara Boxer (D-Cal...
...A GOP congresswoman who drives her colleagues nuts...
...S o now Smith wants to move up to the Senate...
...She was also given to messianic statements...
...GOP leaders have been praying for someone to oppose her in the primary, and not-too-subtly letting it be known that the recruitment window is open...
...What's more, Tate—a fellow '94 freshman—is no fan of Linda Smith...
...the word on the street was that Smith was "overbearing" and impossible to work for—"micro-managing to the point of distrust," said the former aide...
...She's got no eardrums...
...Despite lackluster support from her own party and recent polling putting Murray well under 5o percent, Republicans still face some considerable difficulties defeating her...
...Her constituents find these traits appealing as Smith stumps across the district, but in the usually collegial, wheeland-deal setting of the Capitol, she comes across as shrill and bullheaded...
...You can't count on her for anything...
...At a press conference last year she likened Newt Gingrich to a "fat kid eating all the food" as she joined eight others to oppose his re-election for Speaker...
...Murray's most recent disclosure forms show she has nearly four times as much as Smith and, according to one Republican operative, she "hasn't even cranked up her fundraising machine...
...God has me here for a purpose...
...They point to Washington State's 1996 gubernatorial primary, and an eightperson GOP field that pitted, among others, Dale Foreman against Ellen Craswell...
...Perhaps this town has a skewed view of what's kooky or crazy," says a senior Hill aide, "and if you're not a team player, then there must be something wrong [with you...
...And with the general election a mere six weeks after the primary, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign committee will need to throw a lot of money into the race for a Republican win...
...Although he entered the race late, most predict he'll have little difficulty fundraising...
...But even a cursory glance at Smith's disclosure forms shows she is nearly broke: She has roughly $350,000 on hand and a debt of over $90,000...
...We hate her," said a senior House Republican aide...
...Linda Smith announced last May that she would challenge Democratic incumbent Patty Murray for Washington's Senate seat in 1998, the champagne corks bounced off the ceiling in the House chamber as the Grand Old Party celebrated...
...Her grassroots are highly motivated and project a strong presence, but in actual numbers they are relatively few statewide...
...Presumably that purpose is campaign finance reform...
...Cut-birth says Smith plans to offset paid advertising through extensive "earned media," or press coverage...
...At least one Washington representative who refuses to accept tobacco money, George Nethercutt, found it within his moral sensibilities to put on a happy face and attend...
...and Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill...
...It was something the delegates agreed to do together...
...But in their haste to trot out Smith as the poster girl for the new GOP, Republicans failed to notice that Smith is as unorthodox as the election that brought her to prominence...
...Smith's reputation precedes her, and many Republicans wish she would just go away—quickly, quietly, finally...
...At the time, Nethercutt was still seriously considering launching his own candidacy...
...In a similar cheap trick, Smith showed up unannounced in Nether-cuff's district to campaign for the Senate...
...First elected to the state's house of representatives in 1983, her political career dovetails with the rise of the Christian Right in her state...
...She's a representative," says an aide to a Washington State congressman...
...Republicans cite, for example, the time she joined in a campaign finance protest on the steps of the Capitol...
...for term limits and the minimum wage...
...During Tate's 1996 re-election campaign, Smith brought Perot into his district unannounced and the two railed against him for accepting PAC money...
...Echoing a general sentiment, one aide to a Washington State representative calls Smith "a little kooky...
...Inside the Beltway, lip service to campaign finance reform comes easy...
...The party was bankrolled by Philip Morris...
...But these big guns may help him cut into Smith's Christian Right base...
...Their frustration is compounded by her rhetorical style: aggressive, "self-righteous," full of fire-and-brimstone...
...But in the general election, whether because of "God's plan" or her advocacy of voluntary castration for sex offenders, some voters found Craswell a bit odd...
...W hich brings us back to Patty Murray, the self-described "Mom in tennis shoes," considered by many to be as "kooky" a Democrat as Smith is a Republican—although with Murraythe term might actually apply...
...It was a real breach of protocol," said a Washington State aide...
...But it's not really her views that bother Republicans on Capitol Hill...
...Like Smith, Bayley will need to devote much of his money to media promotion, though for different reasons...
...She does, after all, hold an elective office, and with that comes a host of advantages, including franking, name recognition, and a seasoned grassroots machine...
...Bayley's finances look more promising...
...Though acknowledging strained relations with Smith in the past, a spokesman for McConnell says the NRSC will "happily" support whoever the Republican candidate is...
...Her candidacy was driven by something she called "God's plan" — a legislative agenda for "scripturally justified" government programs that God told her to fulfill...
...Her voting record's like a Rorschach painting," another Republican says...
...But Smith's fervent Christianity—appropriately or not—"gives the media tremendous credibility in saying she's a right-wing nut," said a senior House GOP aide, and GOP pollsters believe it is an image she will have to counter to remain viable...
...Smith subsequently voted for a former representative, Bob Walker (R-Penn...
...Smith is of the latter, populist ilk: against free trade and MFN for China...
...the GOP has made unseating Murray one of its top priorities...
...And then there's the matter of a certain party at the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego...
...and David Welch, chairman of Washington's Christian Coalition, organized a boat-cruise reception for their state's delegates and alternates...
...it was for the delegates," a source said...
...Democrat Gary Locke won handily...
...God gave us rules on bribery and extortion," she said...
...Others say she had a difficult time replacing them...
...But Smith is apparently dead serious about it (she even made Perof s vice-presidential short-list in 1996), and her iconoclastic zeal antagonizes her colleagues...
...In 1995 she authored a budget amendment that would have eliminated $23 million in tobacco subsidies—a cut that would have hit McConnell's Kentucky particularly hard...
...I have read Daniel and read Daniel and read Daniel," Smith has said...
...She is so unwilling to listen," said a Republican source...
...Let the Senate deal with her...
...These same GOP strategists fear that Smith is the spitting image of Craswelland they're not too keen on being burned twice...
...Tate lost...
...The effort failed, but Gingrich was sufficiently irked that he hauled Smith in for what she described as a "testy" meeting...
...Craswell, on the other hand, was a populist, selfdescribed "Christian radical" with strong grassroots support...
...Nor is Smith's cause helped by staff upheavals...
...The amendment fell short by just twenty-four votes...
...Smith's director of communications, David Cutbirth, dismisses this scenario, saying Smith appeals to a much broader base than Craswell's Christian Right...
...She doesn't get it, doesn't understand how things work," one Republican legislator says...
...Despite a clever fundraising gimmick establishing a monthly-installment plan to ease the burden for contributors, sources say Smith is spending too much of her money to get more, and she will have a difficult time raising the millions required for a Senate race...
...When pushed to define "kooky," however, Smith's detractors offer a more sobering view...
...Washington campaign veterans, however, are skeptical this strategy will produce the kind of blanket coverage she will need in the urban television markets of Puget Sound, where over two-thirds of the state's electorate resides...
Vol. 31 • April 1998 • No. 4
