The Supply-Side Club With Clout
Novak, Robert D.
R ep. Joe Scarborough, the savvy and sassy Republication from Florida's Panhandle, was puzzled early this past autumn by what was happening in his state's hottest congressional race. ...
...That will require more members (goal: 5,000) and more money (goal: $5 million) in 2002...
...To run against her the Republication establishment backed State Rep...
...The club's losses included an effort to help the doomed Rep...
...Dianne Byrum (another EMILY candidate) in the Lansing, Michigan district that "It's only lair to warn you Ellinton, that once bright light of yours, is flickering...
...The 5-loot-8 Keller has asked critics to "give a short little chubby guy a break...
...The club itself notes that it CLUB WITH CLOUT fast fall, a new generation of Reaganites enraged the GOP establishment with their zero-toferance poficy for tax-raising Republication fibs...
...The club gambled by sending $93,300 to African-American supply-sider Dylan Glenn, who challenged Democratic Rep...
...Essentially, it's a single-issue advocate...
...Let's play in more primaries next time around," 20 February 2001 The American Spectator Whether we get Gushed or fell we should've gotten "Bored...
...Mike Rogers, who ran against Democratic State Sen...
...Spencer Abraham for re-election in Michigan...
...When Boehlert won the nomination by only 13,592 votes to 10,627, there were second thoughts that a little help might have pushed Vickers to a stunning victory...
...But after Kirk retreated on supply-side issues, Moore classilied him as a "lemon...
...furthermore, the intervention in Republication primaries has not gone over well with party leaders...
...provided the most closely watched congressional race of 2000...
...He stressed tax foud, that they wanted to cut taxes...
...Club for Growth director Jack Kemp was absent...
...When Democrats assailed Kirk for receiving money from an organization that "advocates abofishing all benelits for the poor," the spokesman replied haughtily: "People who endorse Mark Kirk do so because they support his views, not because he necessarily supports all their views...
...But the effort did allect Roukema...
...The move wasn't appreciated by Kemp's ofd cofleagues, who now heard Roukema tell voters that even the most famous supply-side warrior could not swallow the Club for Growth...
...finally, we got tired of all the buff...
...Hello...
...2. Pay corporations to distort the truth...
...Perhaps as many as five of these candidates, the founders suggested, would be challenging incumbent Republication congressmen who consistently opposed supply-side initiatives...
...The unspoken answer was that they were done in by their past voting patterns...
...Rob Simmons in eastern Connecticut against 20year incumbent Sam Gejdenson, senior Democrat on the House International Relations committee...
...Although very late in the 2000 cycle to get anything started, members decided to go ahead and Moore came over from Cato to run the campaign full-time...
...As the primary approached, a disapproving Arizona Republic headlined: "No Secret: Flake Rolls in Growth Club Cash...
...Should the Republications emerge on Nov...
...In his view, tax reduction drove economic growth and was thus the principal instrument of economic poficy...
...The worst is expected from Kirk as a congressman...
...In the end, the club came out against only one moderate: Marge Roukema...
...The S10 million goal was halved to S, million, which also proved unattainable given the club's base of 1,600 members...
...Thomas "Dusty" Rhodes, president of National Review, concurred: "We agreed that the formula we had wasn't really producing...
...3) STAY OUT OF SENATE RACES...
...Matt Salmon, who was honoring his sell-imposed limit of three terms...
...It contributed $73,000 to State Sen...
...Surprisingly, the club engaged in only two such primaries in 2000, and went 2 for 2 by backing Keller in Florida and Flake in Arizona...
...He entered pofitics in a 1996 crusade against sugar subsidies...
...He ran in the Phoenix, Arizona district lelt open by esteemed conservative Rep...
...Supply-side pioneer Jude Wanniski, who had worked with Richard Gilder in forming the original Pofitical Club for Growth, protested and offered Roukema any help she might need...
...The contest finally ended December 15, when Byrum conceded alter hand recounts failed to overturn the narrow lead Rogers had on election day...
...Democrats saw it as one of their most important potential pickups on their way to regaining controf of the House-and their candidate was County Clerk Linda Chapin, an accomplished vote-getter...
...When it became clear on the night of October 3 that Keller had won the primary, the council issued this mean-spirited statement: "Champagne corks are popping at Dick Gephardt's office, at Patrick Kennedy's office and at Linda Chapin's office...
...Thanks to its early contributions, Keller upset Sublette in October and narrowly deleated Chapin in November...
...The club now regrets it did not go alter another RINO - Republican In Name Only-in the 2000 primaries: New York's notorious Rep...
...The organization was founded 18 years ago as the Pofitical Club for Growth...
...Ronald Reagan is the club's prophet...
...4. Deny our knowing yet struggle to specialize...
...His anti-abortion, anti-gun controf positions may be out of phase with some of the club's members...
...was furious that well18 February 20 0 1 The American Spectator 4oo0 Years of Western Civilization 2000 Years of Jesus Christ 4 Years to Absorb It All Thomas Aquinas Coflege Cathofic Liberal Education for the Third Millennium Great Books No Textbooks Box 104, 10,000 N.Ojai Rd...
...They need to be educated...
...What will they do next...
...8. Allow courts of law to operate void of responsible jurisprudence...
...As it turned out, though, Keller narrowly deleated EMILY candidate Chapin to gain a seat deemed essentiaf to Democratic plans for retaking the House...
...But there was no question that the Gingrich revofution had abandoned the supply-side equation: tax cuts = economic growth...
...Two of the fosses came in the only two Senate races in which the Club for Growth intervened-to no discernible effect...
...The American Spectator ? February 2001 21...
...That was a huge race lor us," Moore conceded in a post-election letter to club members, "and losing it hurt in terms of our political clout on Capitol Hill...
...Sublette looked like a sure winner in the October 3 Republication primary, but a possible loser in the November 7 general election...
...I'd be happy to do that," Kemp tofd meat the time - words that immediately evoked justifiable skepticism...
...No longer cat we: "we The People...
...Bill Sublette, a trial lawyer whose bland moderation has characterized GOP candidates in the post-Gingrich era...
...Here was somebody who nobody knew, had no support in the party and very little money...
...At first, they screamed in protest that they indeed were pro-growth and were being targeted because of their liberal positions on abortion and gay rights...
...It that is is good as it gets," asked Moore, "why elect Republications in the first place...
...Davis accused the club of courting disaster in the interests of "ideofogical purity...
...There'd be no more stamp coflecting...
...Tax cuts -Simmons lor, Gejdenson against-were debated in a campaign in which the Republican scored one of the great upsets of 2000...
...Would so faithful a party loyalist ever really oppose an incumbent Republication...
...The one thing he does have in common with them is that he makes tax reduction his lirst priority...
...Indeed, Moore contends the club must deleat one or two incumbents in 2002 - a difficult assignment, considering the 97 percent survival rate by sitting House members - to gain credibility...
...Clublounders agreed that the most objectionabfe House Republications were Constance Morella of Maryland and Mike Castle of Delaware, but they also knew both were invulnerable in a Republication primary...
...The club's second biggest contribution was $132,700 to Jell llake...
...The club's members are far removed from Disney World, geographically and culturally...
...Can the Club for Growth ever approach EMIlY's list in inlluencing who is elected to Congress and what they do when they get there...
...Clearly the Club for Growth is no appendage of the Republication Party or its agenda...
...John Edward Porter...
...Reagan himseff had been ambivafent...
...Out of 17 general election contests, ten club-endorsed candidates won and seven lost...
...The club was determined to cause widespread consternation in COP ranks in the months ahead...
...Rick Lazio in New York and Sen...
...Disgust with the Republication Congress's failure to enact serious tax cuts in 1998 and 1999 had club members vowing they'd never give another dime to the Republication National Committee...
...7 with controf of the House intact," the nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly reported just before the election, "one of the groups they might thank is the Club for Growth...
...Great Seminars No fectures That was certainly the view of the liberal Republication Leadership Council, which supported Sublette...
...In truth, no more than two of these wins can be attributed to the club's efforts...
...Club for Growth President Stephen Moore put it this way in a post-election fetter to his members: "I believe that arguably our most crucial contribution in 2000 was in proving candidates can and do win when they run on issues like tax cuts, Social Security choice and limited government...
...reduction but favored smaller government and left that, at least in the short run, less revenue would bring about lower spending...
...NO longer can we: 1 Trust our government to do the riqht thing...
...Instead, its model would be the fiercely feminist EMIfVs Early Money Is like Yeast] List, which raises S10 million each election cycle for a limited number of women candidates ( 14 in 2000) pledged to an inflexible pro-abortion feminist-leftist agenda...
...ROBERT D. NOVAK Florida's 8th district (which includes Disney World) would be an open seat because its congressman, Rep...
...Radio talk show host Mike Pence was also a key club recipient ($75,000) in the Muncie, Indiana district that ended up an easier general election win than expected...
...To Scarborough's surprise and delight, Subette was being seriously challenged by a young conservative named Ric Keller, who was making his first try for public office and whose past pofitical activity had been largely confined to anti-tax initiatives...
...In contrast, the club's leaders wish they had put early money into the successlul campaign of State Rep...
...What compelled them to seek the meeting with Moore was fear that their incumbency might be threatened by a big war chest...
...None received anything close to the hallmillion doflars envisioned a year earlier, and only four were given as much as $1OO,OOO...
...Alter staying out of the Republican primary, the club was urged by members living in the district to help Kirk...
...The moderates who confronted Moore displayed a shocking ignorance of supply-side doctrine...
...That will determine just how much lile there is in the supply-side movement...
...Santa Paula, CA 93060 (800) 634-9797 www.thomasaquinas.edu heeled conservatives were messing around with incumbent members...
...He grew up in a female-headed family of five that lived in a one-bedroom shotgun house in Orlando...
...That amount would match what EMILY's List raises from its huge list of 60,000 members and would allow hall a million doflars to go to each of 20 endorsed candidates...
...there are Moore advised in his letter to members, "and de-emphasize the genera] election, where our support is marginalized...
...The 37-year-ofd Keller would seem an unlikely standard bearer for the elegant members of the Club of Growth...
...At a time when many Republication candidates and operatives were rejecting that banner, the Club for Growth set out to raise millions for Republication candidates who would say, out loud, that they wanted to cut taxes...
...As it happens, the club's mission is both less ambitious and grander than saving the House for the GOP...
...Flake, who headed an Arizona think tank, was an ideal supply-side candidate, and his nomination was clinched by the club's backing...
...Indeed, the club's managers regret they didn't pour $200,000 more into the campaign...
...Steve Moore, at the time fiscal poficy director of the libertarianoriented Cato Institute, was appalled by the record of the RepubThe American Spectator o February 2001 17 lican-controfled Congress, especially its runaway spending...
...Actually the club's first-year record wasn't all that bad, considering the fate start...
...Moore tofd them the Club for Growth did not particularly care about either of those issues...
...Why, asked Gilder and Rhodes, can't we do the same thing tor supply-siders...
...Davis arranged what turned out to be a memorable meeting between Steve Moore and several House moderates, some of whom were listed as targets in my cofumn...
...Such a setback in its highest profile case fed to a mistaken impression that the club had crashed and burned in its maiden flight...
...like-minded supply-siders would gather in Manhattan, talk economics and pofitics with a guest lecturer, and then pledge money for campaigns like Jack Kemp's...
...The Time Is Now...
...supported 25 percent of the freshman Republication House members elected fast fall (six out of 24...
...These are winning messages...
...Moore's concern with spending is not shared by Gilder and many of the other supply-siders who founded the club...
...On the House floor, she approached colleagues who had received backing lrom the Club lor Growth to inquire about what it would take to get straight with them...
...The club now had a ready-made candidate in a district that could not be lost to the Democrats no matter how the intra-Republication tight turned out...
...R ep...
...Sherwood Boehlert, whose voting record is lar more liberal than Roukema's...
...The Club lor Growth's first-year record wasn't all that bad, considering the late start...
...When in mid-December 1999 my newspaper cofumn reported on the club's early plans, the House Republication estabfishment erupted in outrage...
...The club's ambitions for 2000 were quickly trimmed...
...said investor Richard Gilder (no refation to George Gilder...
...5. Trust in the practice of medicine to be honest, enlightening and accountable, 6. Trust our elected officials to tell us the truth, 7. Burden the accountable, provide benefits and privileges to the opportunistic and breed dependence...
...ROBERT D. NOVAK is a nationally syndicated cofumnist and CNN host and commentator...
...9. Freely exercise our right (not privilege) to congregate and worship...
...Contradicting what Ire had tofd me, Jack Kemp resigned from the club's board...
...1 11 addition to Gilder, Rhodes, and Moore, the club's founding meeting was attended by economist lawrence Kudlow, Cato's Ed Crane, and pofitical fundraiser Linda Pell...
...That cahned the moderates a bit and, in the style of professional pofiticians they asked just what they had to do to win the approval of the Club for Growth...
...It ended up giving him $69,000, which contributed to a narrow general election victory...
...What especially antagonized them was House Majority Whip Tom DeLay's bragging about the "overwhelming success" of the 1999 congressional session...
...Glenn lost by 8 percentage points, but winning 46 percent of the vote against a black incumbent was no mean feat...
...Backing Keller was a potentially important player on the national pofitical scene called the Club for Growth...
...But those figures are deceptive...
...Marge Roukema of New Jersey, who had been elected ten times from heavily Rcpub lican Bergen County and was in line to become Banking Committee chairman in 2001...
...So instead they listed several unreliable senior COP members who conceivably could be defeated in a primary-perhaps as early as 2000: Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Jack Quinn of New York, Greg Ganske of Iowa, Jim Kofbe of Arizona...
...It raised about $2.5 million (hall the $5 million goaf) for 18 candidates...
...That was enough to create a firestorm...
...We'll do it again," Dusty Rhodes told me, in promising further challenges of sitting House Republicans...
...Kirk's spokesman, meanwhile, for all intents repudiated the Club for Growth...
...Tom Davis of Virginia, who as House COP campaign chairman was responsible for maintaining Republication controf in 2000...
...Sanford Bishop in Georgia...
...2) GET INVOFVED IN MORE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY CONTESTS LOR OPEN HOUSE SEATS...
...They are investors and intellectuals who've been steadfastly loyal to the standard of supply-side economics...
...Even though Rep...
...But it will also depend on how the club lunctions in the new Congress to convince Republicans that it is in their best pofitical interest to support tax cuts, Social Security relorm, and reduced government...
...He won a schofarship to East The American Spectator - February 2oor 19 Tennessee State University, on his way to becoming a workaday lawyer...
...Then Scarborough did figure it out...
...You like to coflect stamps...
...She modilied her voting pattern, which now includes support for total repeal of the estate tax and - alter years of opposition-for the requirement of a congressional super-majority to increase taxes...
...We intend to put their feet to the fire," Moore tofd me...
...The $51,100 it gave to Rogan was but a token in the most lavishly financed Republican race last year...
...Trust parents to be accountable for their children, 11...
...Afthough she frequently defied party discipfine on economic issues, Roukema was no worse - and perhaps a little better-than the other targeted non-supply siders...
...The result was an early December 1999 meeting at Gilder's midtown Manhattan office in which the reformed Club for Growth was born...
...While the club wants to expand its base by reaching out to moderates, the effort will require a combination of persuasion and force...
...The club went o For 2 in Senate races, backing Rep...
...I couldn't figure it out at first," Scarborough tofd me...
...His primary opponent, David Vickers, a conservative high school teacher, pleaded lor club money but was turned down because he did not seem to stand a chance...
...We liked to talk pofitics...
...Trade our children's liberty jor financial benefits...
...What made her such an inviting target was her close call in the 1998 primary against conservative challenger K. Scott Garrcftw ho was prepared to run again...
...Beyond electing supply-sidcrs, the organizers wanted to punish high-ranking House Republications who, though they enjoyed enviable privileges owing to their seniority, consistently refused to give the COP leadership their vote - even on tax cuts...
...The Club for Growth exists for tax reduction...
...but, the time is now...
...Abraham is a supply-side hero who pledged to push cuts in the capital gains tax and whose courageous light for immigration endeared him to Gilder...
...TTIN INSTITUTE Since 1979 EDUCATION o RESEARCH o CITIZENSHIP ? TAX ISSUES o TRUSTS o LOREIGN "."learning to live without a Social Security Number...
...Melissa Hart after it was likely she would win a Democratic district in Pennsylvania...
...To succeed, the club must generate fear- certainly an essential element in pofitics...
...James Rogan, the Clinton impeachment manager, survive in California...
...It also promotes Social Security privatization and free trade, but these rank a poor second and third behind tax cutting...
...Although this was a sure Republican seat, the GOP nomination was vigorously contested in a multi-candidate field...
...It put us on the map," Dick Gilder told me of the Roukema campaign...
...This inaugural performance by the Club lor Growth leads to these conclusions about the fluture: (1)DON'T LET THE LAILURE TO DELEAT MARGE ROUKEMA INHIBIT LUTURE ATTEMPTS TO PURGE LIBERALS...
...But the club's $63,000 for Lazio and $83,500 for Abraham -amounts that might have made a difference in a House primary contest-were mere trifles in those massively financed Senate campaigns...
...I'm Death and Taxes...we merged...
...Many club members live in New York and wanted to do something for lazio against Hillary Clinton...
...Roukema wound up with 52 percent of the primary vote, defeating Garrett by the same margin as two years earlier (on her way, as anticipated, to another easy general election win in her safe GOP district...
...The club contributed $100,000 to State Sen...
...Topping the list was 70-year-ofd Rep...
...T he biggest contribution was $2o%000 to Ric Keller in Florida, and his win was easily the club's greatest triumph for 2000...
...Unhappy that outsiders were intervening against Bill Sublette, House GOP leaders viewed Keller as another rightwinger who could win the primary but would surely lose the generaf election in a tightly contested district...
...4) BE CARELUL THAT YOU DON'T BACK A DUD...
...Bill McCullom, was running for the Senate...
...Particularly unrealistic was the idea of targeting as many as five Republication I House incumbents...
...The big disappointment was a Republican winner, Mark Kirk, in a traditionally GOP seat in Chicago's north suburbs that was under vigorous Democratic assault after the retirement of veteran RINO Rep...
...Talk at the founding meeting was a little grandiose, figuring S10 million as a fundraising goal...
...Portentously, however...
...Paul Ryan was sure of re-election to a second term in Wisconsin, the club gave him $62,0oo because he looks like the future poster boy of the supply-side movement...
...It raised about $2.5 million (hall the $5 million goal) lor 18 candidates...
...3. Trust producers of consumer goods not to endanger us, our planet and our children...
Vol. 34 • February 2001 • No. 1
