Primer: The Republican Main Street Partnership
A few days ago, sensing their coming loss, Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, one of the more prominent members of the Republican Main Street Parternship penned a column in the New York Post attacking the Club for Growth. The gist of it is this:
Toomey claims that “the Club for Growth PAC supports pro-growth, limited-government candidates who oppose wasteful earmarks and support cutting taxes.” Unfortunately, the club’s rhetoric and the facts don’t match up. The reality is that the Club for Growth is little more than a front for radical social conservatives who would rather destroy the GOP than sacrifice an inch of its divisive agenda.
Ah, divisive agenda. You mean the divisive agenda – opposing gay marriage and abortion – that is in the Republican party platform? Rep. Boehlert might want to check up on that one.
But in all seriousness, this charge – that the Club for Growth is really some radical social issues organization – is the charge most often leveled at the group by liberal Republicans. Why? Because these are people who have all made their careers on being ’social moderates’ but ‘fiscal conservatives.’ The Club for Growth has been busy over the last few cycles revealing to voters that many of them aren’t fiscal conservatives at all. And thus, their entire world has come crashing down around them.
Boehlert calls Schwarz a pro-growth fiscal conservative. The National Taxpayer Union disagrees, giving him a C-. If you look at the Club for Growth’s own rankings, Schwarz has the 8th worst voting record of any congressional Republicans on economic issues.
The seven Republican congressmen who fall below him are:
Rep. Tim Johnson (IL)
Rep. Chris Shays (CT)
Rep Sherwood Boehlert (NY) — shocking!
Rep. John McHugh (NY)
Rep. Rob Simmons (CT)
Rep. Chris Smith (NJ)
Rep. Jim Leach (IA)
Shays, Boehlert, Simmons, and Leach are all social liberals. I’m not sure about McHugh. But Chris Smith is a big time pro-life activist, in fact he switched from the Democratic party back in the 90s over the abortion issue. He’s basically a social conservative and a fiscal liberal. Tim Johnson is also pro-life.
What this means is that by and large, fiscal and social liberalism in the GOP go hand in hand. Its not an exact correlation, but its strong enough that most of the Club for Growth’s top targets are going to be social libs.
By the way, the descriptions of the votes used for the Club for Growth ratings are available online. If you can find a social issue vote among them I’ll make a campaign donation to Lincoln Chafee.
Republican Main Street Partnership can be found here.
Thanks to Alexander Brunk (my former supervisor at the Leadership Insititute) for giving us a heads up about this organization. Check out his blog.
I’ve always said, if I had money (which I don’t) the only political organization I would ever donate to would be the Club for Growth.
