The Republicans regroup

Republican governors are ready to offer advice to the House members
of their party. They are in a good position to do so. Republican governors continue to have a strong majority, controlling 31 states. Republican House members lost five seats and had expected to gain as many as a dozen.

Although Republican governors are in power in 60 percent of the states, those states represent 70 percent of the population. The only major electoral state not led by a Republican governor is California.

Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-GA, pointed to the success of
Republican governors around the country as an example House Republicans should follow in the future. He said losses in the House came because the Democrats did a better job at getting their supporters to the polls.

“I think it’s very revealing that the governors who won big, won basically by campaigning on reforming government, lowering taxes so there would be more economic growth, and more take home pay,” said Gingrich on yesterday. “I think that’s the core message to the Republican Party in Washington. That, if we can learn from the Republican governors, a pragmatic focus on an economic conservatism that really works for reforming government, lowering taxes, and where possible borrow directly from the governors experiences, and apply the things they’ve done well to the fed government. I believe we can have a very successful two years and set the stage for a very successful campaign.”

Gingrich was himself a landslide victor over Democratic challenger Gary Pelphrey.

Big gambling interests changed the governorship of South Carolina, not a Republican vs. Democrat ideological fight or the debate over impeachment. The loss of the governorship was not part of a national trend, according to defeated Republican Gov. David M. Beasley.

“It was a very different situation because of the organized gambling issue. It had nothing to do with the Republican Party. The Republican Party in South Carolina, and in the south, is strong,” Beasley told WorldNetDaily the morning after his defeat.

Beasley is a former Democrat who turned Republican in 1994. He was attacked by his Democrat opponent, state House Minority Leader Jim
Hodges, over his refusal to back a proposal for a state lottery. Billboards and TV ads, paid for by gambling interests, deionized Beasley and blamed him for the last place ranking in the nation of South Carolina schools. Hodges pitched a lottery as the solution to education problems in the state.

Despite his own loss, Beasley was very upbeat about the election and
the impact on the nation.

Beasley said that Republicans who defined the issues and ran on their records came out winners across the country on Tuesday. Republicans moved into a majority in the House, Senate, and governorships across the country in 1994. That majority was maintained in the 1996 election, and again this year, although the House lost five Republican members and the governorships were reduced by one. The Senate remains the same with 55 it had before the election. He said the amazing growth of the party in 1994 was
just too difficult to match this time around.

“It is an amazing tribute to the Republican governors that we maintained 31 governorships,” he said. “It showcases the strength of the Republican Party in America is in the hands of the Republican governors. As long as the Republican governors continue to work strongly with our Republican controlled Congress, America will move forward.”

Like Gingrich, Beasley attributes Republican losses around the country to a high Democratic voter turnout. He claims his own state is an exception to that, and he explains it as his inability to compete against millions of special interest dollars from the gambling industry.

“We gained (new Republican governors in) Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, and Colorado. These are states that are traditionally Democrat in terms of gubernatorial elections, but also we did extraordinarily well in states that have been traditionally Democrat like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Michigan,” Beasley explained.

“I don’t think yesterday was a Democratic day, or was it for that matter a Republican day,” said Gov. Frank Keating, R-OK. He said the few Republican losses were based on individualized, local issues, not some national mandate from the voters. Keating won re-election in a landslide over Democrat Laura Boyd and Reformist Hoppy Heidelberg.

Republican candidates for governor were successful when they focused on issues that hit home. Traditional conservative themes like tax relief and less government were winning issues around the country, according to Keating.

“We can blend a conservative, pro-growth ideology with a practical common sense governing experience and succeed,” said Keating.

“We had excellent candidates with growth messages, and reform messages, and we won,” he explained. “The states that we lost were the result of local problems and challenges in that state.”

He said that Beasley “was lost in a sea of money. Those tragedies do happen in politics on occasion.”

Republican candidates need to get back to some conservative, fundamental basics, according to Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, R-WI. Yesterday he was offering future House candidates advice to avoid larger defeats two years from now.

Thompson is in good position to offer advice. He was re-elected for the fourth time in a landslide victory over Democrat Ed Garvey.

“When you start talking about Republicanism,” he said, “such as lower taxes, more states rights, the opportunity to control your own destiny, welfare reform, improved schools — the Republicans always win. Where we lose is we muddle our message, and we have to get back to delivering a concerted, co-ordinated message with Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott in Congress. We have to start talking once again in America about devolution of authority. In the Contract for America and lower taxes and more individual rights. When we do that we are going to continually lead.”

He said the Republican governors have been setting the agenda for America and the rest of the Republican party should take a look at their example.

“We can be the force. We can be the focus. We can come up with the innovative solutions for America. All we have to do is get back to the basic game plan of working with Congress and talking about states rights and we’ll do well,” Thompson explained.

He says that politicians who become activists have the greatest success. Voters respond to elected officials who see a problem, offer a solution, and then do something about it. He blames House Republicans for talking about problems without bringing solutions.

“I think people like to see government being very active,” Thompson explained. “They like to see proposals. They like to see common sense solutions. Once you do that and you start coming up with common sense solutions, whether it be in welfare, senior care, education improvement, or tax cuts you’re going to be able to garner a vast majority of voters in a particular state. I think Republicans have been too tepid in announcing that they’re going to do this or that.”

Republicans have maintained a strong backbone of support in the west. Out of 18 western states, 13 have a Republican governor, including new victories in Colorado and Nebraska. Those numbers will be a big help when the time comes to draw new political boundaries.

“We look to the year 2000 — when a lot of the legislatures will be looking at reapportionment,” said Gov. Jim Geringer, R-WY. “Drawing district lines for both local and national representation, that force of the Republican governors being in the capitals is going to be a very significant one in shaping the Congress of the future,” he predicted.

Geringer cruised to an easy victory for his second term. His Democrat rival, John Vinich, was only able to garner 41 percent of the vote.

Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-AR, was first elected as lieutenant governor in a
special election in 1993. When he arrived at the capitol he found his office door nailed shut from the inside. It took more than a month to get the door opened, only to find the room stripped of furnishings and office equipment. Such was the tension between Democrats and Republicans in Arkansas.

Huckabee succeeded Democrat Gov. Jim Guy Tucker when he resigned in
light of criminal charges resulting from the Whitewater scandal.

“We’ve learned a lot about politics in this state,” said Huckabee yesterday after a landslide victory over Democrat Bill Bristow. “It’s a tough place to fight battles because no southern state has had a harder time becoming two party than Arkansas. We are the last southern state to really move into a two party system, and we still struggle with it.”

He said he has since found greater acceptance in a state which has been dominated by Democrats for so long. Despite the abuse and attacks, Huckabee says he has been a winner because he doesn’t resort to attacking Democrats.

“We ran a very positive campaign,” said Huckabee. I think the key was, I spent the campaign talking about the things I was for, not about the people I was against. People responded to that. It resonated with voters. They want a party with vision, not simply one that projects nightmares.

“I think that the key to our getting 60 percent of the vote in Arkansas and against an incredible get out the vote effort among the Democrats yesterday was that people appreciated that we had a platform of the things that we were for. And we talked in a very positive way, and that worked — and it was against all odds.”

Gov. Don Sundquist, R-TN, was re-elected with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Democrats struggled to find a candidate to challenge Sundquist and ran a reluctant John Hooker. Sundquist said his campaign was directed to the people. He made sure the voters knew of his successes and the plans for more success in the future.

“We talked about the fact that we are the lowest per capita taxed state in the country,” said Sundquist with pride. “We talked about education. We talked about the issues of creating new jobs, and the environment. I believe we have strong leadership in Washington in the Congress. As governors showing what works and what doesn’t work, if we can get to the point where we’re working closely with Trent (Lott) and Newt (Gingrich) and others, we are working closely. We just have to make sure people understand that. We apply and we participate in the decision making process of our party.”

Governor-elect Mike Johanns, R-NE, has been campaigning for over three years, and his diligent effort paid off with a defeat of Democrat Bill Hoppner. His message was the same as other successful Republican governors, but with no track record to point to, he simply pointed to other successful governors.

“The message that I took across the state the past couple of years was less government, lower our tax burden, very pro-growth message, but it also spoke to the issue of personal responsibility. What really helped was being able to point to other governors across the country, (like) Tommy Thompson, and say (that) welfare reform can happen.

“What really developed here was a pragmatic, conservative message. It was a message that said we can do these things but we can still fund our priorities. We can have quality education. We can fund our state patrol and do the things necessary to provide for the public safety. People responded to that message, and it was just that nuts and bolts, conservative, less government, lower taxes, and build the economy message that I repeated the last three years and it made a difference,” explained Johanns.

The Republicans also gained a new governorship in Idaho. Governor-elect Dirk Kempthorne (who is currently U.S. Senator Kempthorne) said he owes his victory to a campaign that dealt with the issues of greatest concern to the voters. It was a strategy he says most victorious Republicans followed. Democrat Robert Huntley was only able to collect 30 percent of the vote.

“I think what the Republican governors have been demonstrating is that we’re seeing governors take issues that are important to people, such as children’s issues, such as education, but are achieving results so that it’s not just talking about these issues because we know in polling data they’re important. (We) can actually point to the results, and that’s what the electorate is looking for, and that’s why I think the Republican governors were rewarded last night,” said Kempthorne yesterday.

Maintaining a majority, and gaining the White House in two years will depend on Republicans giving Americans the right message, and by having the right candidates.

“The average American views himself as reasonably middle of the road, but basically conservative,” says Keating. “So I think the message is important, but also the messanger is important. What we have been able to do is find really outstanding people to run. Especially in states like mine that are overwhelmingly Democrat in registration, that we have bested them (Democrats) in getting good people to run.

“The message is important. To suggest to people that government can work. It can work smaller. It can work with less employees. It can work with tax cuts, it can work with efficiencies that in the past it didn’t have. But also we can take positions that are agressively pro-growth and pro-people.”

Keating gave some examples of how he was able to control issues that were traditionally dominated by Democrats. He credits the strategy for giving him a broad base of support.

“For example, in Oklahoma I flanked the Democrats on the left,” explained Keating, “on the environmental issues. We enacted the toughest hog bill in the country and the first poultry regulation bill in the country, because quality of life is very important for growth.

“And we flanked them on the right on corrections and criminal justice. Repealing early release and coming down really tough using private prisons for the first time ever. The message is that government can work. We can reduce the size, we can reduce taxes. We can make it more efficient. We can invite the best and brightest people into it to make it work, and I think that’s very powerful. So good messenger, and good message, and we’ll win.”

David Bresnahan ([email protected]) is a contributing editor of
WorldNetDaily.com, and is the author of “Cover Up: The Art and
Science of Political Deception.”