ROUKEMA MISTAKE
Republicans have always joked that New Jersey Republican Rep.
Marge Roukema was a Democrat, given her moderate
to liberal leanings. Her impending retirement isn’t exactly erasing
any doubts on that score. In fact, if her staffers are correct, New
Jersey Marge could be saving her best for last. That’s because,
these sources tell The Prowler, Roukema intends to endorse Democrat
Anne Sumers in her bid to win the 5th
Congressional District seat long held by Roukema.
A Roukema endorsement would hurt Republican Scott
Garrett in the contest, but not doom him. “Representative
Roukema simply doesn’t like his politics,” says a Roukema insider
in Washington. “She didn’t like him in the primary and she likes
him even less as the Republican nominee.”
In the GOP primary Roukema endorsed the liberal challenger state
Sen. Gerry Cardinale, who some believed was better
positioned to win in the general election. But Garrett whipped
Cardinale and is actually in better shape than some might think.
“We don’t need Roukema’s endorsement, it’s just sour grapes,” says
a Garrett staffer. “Unlike her, Scott Garrett understands what it
takes to get New Jersey’s 5th District constituents what they need
out of Congress.”
That’s a shot at Roukema’s increasingly deteriorating standing
with the conservative House leadership. The longest serving woman
in the House, Roukema was left out on the leadership’s front porch,
unable to push her way inside after clashing repeatedly with former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, current House Speaker
Dennis Hastert and Republican leaders Dick
Armey and Tom DeLay. “She was
unreliable,” says a current House leader. “Why would we consider
her for a leadership position? She did nothing to give us the
impression she’d help us when the chips were down.” Ultimately, her
failure to move into the leadership pushed Roukema to retire.
While Roukema’s pending endorsement of Sumers is a slap at
Republicans and Garrett, it’s not entirely surprising. A former
Republican herself before switching parties to run for Congress,
Sumers in the past has hosted fundraisers for Roukema in her
district. “They are old friends,” confirms the Roukema staffer.
In the end, though, Garrett should not be hampered by the lack
of support from Roukema in holding the seat for the GOP. This,
after all, is a district that voted heavily for Republican
gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler. “If he
runs a smart campaign, and gets Schundler and other Republicans in
there to help him, he should have a good shot,” says the House
leader. “We’re counting on him to hold that seat.”
SUE FOR SMITH
The Democratic Party always seemed to enjoy the flighty, flaky
culture of the Pacific Northwest that provided it with so many
loyalists. Now you have to wonder if it’s finally paying the price
for this arrangement.
Last Thursday the Prowler reported
on Oregon’s Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden refusing to
go negative against Republican colleague Sen. Gordon
Smith, who is facing a potentially tough re-election run
against Oregon secretary of state Bill Bradbury.
Wyden cited his friendship with Smith and his overall satisfaction
with being part of a bipartisan Senate delegation as reasons for
not wanting to bad-mouth Smith during the campaign. Both the
Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee are up in arms about Wyden’s reluctance to play
political hardball.
And now the story gets worse. Jackson County, Oregon
Commissioner Sue Kupillas, who is also a Democrat,
has announced she is forming Southern Oregon Democrats for Smith,
to back Wyden’s seeming desire to keep the Republican in his job.
Kupillas, who claims to be a liberal, is also happy with the
Smith-Wyden team and has organized the pro-Smith group in the face
of threats and arm-twisting from the state and national Democratic
Party. “It’s not like she’s rescuing people in danger or anything,”
says a Kupillas supporter in Medford, Oregon. “But in a way she is
a hero.”
Kupillas has been threatened with ouster from her state party’s
central committee, and members of the central committee have been
spreading rumors about her, “They say she’s a conservative, which
in our neck of the woods is pretty nasty stuff,” says the
supporter.
