END OF THE ROAD
Who’d have thought campaign finance reform would have created the
odd bedfellows of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell
and the American Civil Liberties Union? But then campaign finance
reform has made lots of strange bedfellows: former firebrand
conservative John McCain and ultraliberal
Tom Daschle, for example. Republicans on Capitol
Hill are hoping that pair will be less visible when President
George W. Bush signs the campaign finance bill that passed
yesterday into law, which may come as soon as early next week,
according to White House sources.
Senate Republicans on the losing end of Wednesday’s 60-40 vote
are also hoping that the Bush administration won’t rub it in their
faces with a public signing. “Daschle and his ilk are asking for a
Rose Garden signing ceremony,” says a White House congressional
liaison staffer. “That’s something we’re trying to avoid.”
Instead, according to the legislative lobbyist, it’s been
suggested that Bush quietly sign the bill in a low key Oval Office
ceremony. “We know McConnell basically has the lawsuit ready to go
to try to kill this thing,” says another White House policy
staffer. “Let’s just sign it and get on with the next act.”
McConnell on Thursday is expected to introduce part of the legal
team that has been at work for more than six months preparing legal
arguments and strategies to block a campaign finance reform
act.
The biggest loser in the campaign finance fight may not be Hill
Republicans but relations between Senate Republicans and the White
House. According to one Republican Senate leadership staffer,
Minority Leader Trent Lott and McConnell had lined
up a rock-solid 42 senators, enough to ensure that a planned GOP
filibuster against the bill could not be blocked by Democrats.
But, says the leadership staffer, the White House had been so
clear about its intentions to accept campaign finance reform, there
was no point in putting up any further resistance. Throughout the
Capitol on Wednesday, the drizzly weather outside mirrored the
tempered moods of Senate Republicans indoors. “There was nothing to
be done,” says another Senate staffer. “The White House made it
clear that they wanted this thing on the President’s desk and that
he would most likely sign it. What were we going to do?”
Instead, McConnell and his allies are looking ahead to a court
fight and a tough 2002 election. Republican National Committee
sources say that the party is in good shape financially for what
may be the final races involving soft money. “But my gut tells me
soft money will be around in 2004. I think we win this in the end
in the Supreme Court,” says an RNC fundraiser. “It’s certainly
something for us to rally around.”
WHO LOST ILLINOIS?
The Illinois gubernatorial race isn’t turning out the way it was
supposed to, and that’s got the White House peeved. George W. Bush
and some senior advisers stopped by Chicago last weekend to
celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and left angry at what they saw and
heard. “It’s a mess,” says a White House political aide. “We’re in
for a rough ride in Illinois. We’ve tried to stay out of it out of
respect for Speaker Hastert. But it’s chaos there, we risk losing
everything in the state.”
Former Golden Gloves boxer and seminary student and current
state attorney general Jim Ryan, 56, won the
Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, but not before a
bruising battle with two other candidates: Lt. Gov. Corinne
Wood and state Sen. Patrick O’Malley.
O’Malley, a pro-life, pro-guns conservative, in particular beat up
on Ryan’s moderate positions. “Ryan would not have been our first
pick,” says a senior Republican National Committee member. “But
Dennis seemed to think he was the guy who could keep Republican
control in Illinois. Who were we to question him?”
Even though Ryan was his hand-picked candidate, Dennis
Hastert never bothered to ensure that the primary would be
a closed affair. Nor did Hastert prevent Ryan from announcing his
candidacy before his boss and political godfather, current governor
George Ryan, who’s been under a dark ethical
cloud, declared he would not seek a second term. “Hastert failed as
a kingmaker,” says the RNC member. “This is looking like a disaster
to us. Why was the White House worrying about California and not
Illinois?”
In the end, Ryan spent more campaign money than any other
candidate to win his primary and now faces a well-financed Democrat
in Rep. Rod Blagojevich, who showed strength
downstate in winning the Democratic nomination. (His Chicago House
seat is expected to be filled by Clintonite Rahm
Emanuel, who won the 5th district primary going away.)
Already, Blagojevich is counting up the new fundraising dollars
pouring in from organized labor and the Chicago political machine.
He’s an early favorite to win the governor’s seat, a difficult pill
for Republicans to swallow.
ARMEY IN A FIGHT
Lost in the primary flurries around the country was the bloody
contest pitting retiring House Republican majority leader
Dick Armey’s son, Scott, against several
challengers for his father’s seat. The younger Armey failed to win
the Republican nomination outright and will face off against local
physician Michael Burgess. While Armey is still
favored to win the seat, it was an embarrassing moment for the
family that has held it since 1984. “We will have another Armey
warming that seat come next January, don’t doubt it,” says a source
close to the candidate. “The primary was a blip. We’ll win the
runoff and run hard from there.”
