Is the Club for Growth about to target Gordon Smith?
Kari Chisholm
The Club for Growth is a DC-based right-wing organization that targets "squishy" Republicans with primary challenges from the right.
In 2004, they spent $2 million funding Pat Toomey's primary challenge to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). Toomey lost, but he became the Club's president. In 2006, they spent over a million bucks funding Steve Laffey's primary challenge to Senator Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI), who later lost to Sheldon Whitehouse.
Despite going 0-for-2 in US Senate primary races, the Club has notched a few impressive wins in the US House. In 2006, they knocked off GOP Congressman Joe Schwarz (R-MI) with evangelical minister Tim Walberg - and they helped Bill Sali win a Congressional seat in Idaho.
So, what does all this have to do with Gordon Smith?
Well, on their blog, the Club for Growth has called Gordon Smith an "ignorant lawmaker", a "big-spending Republican", and put him in their "economic hall of shame".
More interesting is that the Laffey vs. Chaffee campaign turned into a proxy battle between the Club for Growth and a group called the Republican Main Street Partnership. The Club filed an FEC complaint against the RMSP, while the RMSP has said that "deception and division are the hallmarks of a Club for Growth campaign." There are only six Senators listed as members of the RMSP, and yup - Gordon Smith is one of 'em.
So, if you're paying close attention to Gordon Smith, you might want to pay close attention to the Club for Growth. It sure would be interesting if the Club showed any signs of life out here in Oregon.
Well, I'll be damned. The Club for Growth just announced the opening of an Oregon affiliate - Club for Growth Oregon. The director is named Dylan Amo - and here's what he told the Oregon Catalyst blog:
For too long, elected officials who claim to be fiscal conservatives have cast aside their beliefs to partake in a bloated government that insists on taking more and more from hard working families trying to achieve the American Dream. ... To instill greater integrity today, we're launching Club for Growth Oregon to put an end to these games. For us, playtime is over!
That was on March 6th.
And less than three weeks later? Bill Sizemore is thinking out loud about challenging Gordon Smith.
As I write this, the Club's big annual conference is getting underway in Palm Beach, Florida. Do you think Gordon Smith could be a major topic of conversation?
I wouldn't be surprised.
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Mar 30, '07
That is certainly an interesting development. While Bill Sizemore fails to surprise me anymore (maybe if he'd just disappear -- that might be surprising), this race looks like it just might be entertaining to watch afterall.
(That's a - um - creative graphic.)
Mar 30, '07
The Club for Growth wants to back a radical right-winger to knock off Gordo? Great -- more power to 'em! That would virtually ensure the election of a Democratic senator.
The Ann Coulter Republicans continue to demonstrate that they would rather be right -- FAR right -- than win elections. No wonder their party and their ideas are becoming increasingly (to borrow one of their favorite terms) marginalized.
Mar 30, '07
For Smith, Sizemore will have the advantage of making Smith look good. Hopefully, however, most voters will recognize that Smith would be in this case the lesser of two evils. But the main problem remains so far - who will run a viable campaign against Goody-Two-Shoes?
10:09 a.m.
Mar 30, '07
"(That's a - um - creative graphic.)"
Brings new meaning to the retort, "If it was up your ass you'd know where it was."
Mar 30, '07
Progressive and liberals need to do everything in our power to see to it that organizations like Club for Growth succeed in their attempts at a beer-hall putsch. Gordo isn’t within sniffing distance of being a moderate, but within the twilight zone of these groups, he’s a flaming liberal. That alone shows how whacked these folks are, and why we need to encourage them to stick around and keep yakking.
I hope the professional malcontents on local wing-nut radio take note and bring them on.
10:44 a.m.
Mar 30, '07
I am not convinced that this works in the Democrats favor unless a 3rd party candidate from the right is in the general election. There will be nothing better for Gordon in the general if he has spent 9 months defending himself from right wing attacks. He will be able to solidify his claim that he is a centrist, moderate caught between the two extremes. The Oregonian editorials will write themselves.
The only hope is that he will not only spend a lot of his money in the primary, but he will have to move somewhat to the right to win and at the same time piss off enough Republican righties that they do not vote for him in the general. There is no doubt in my mind that he will win the primary. Even in the Republican party, Sizemore and his fellow travelers are not in a position to beat Smith.
Mar 30, '07
Kari,
Did you catch this on Rove and Smith - Rove's role in helping Smith get re-elected in 2002 by virtually ordering the Dept. of Interior to change its policy and release water to the "base" - the farmers in eastern Oregon, resulting in possibly the largest fish kill in the history of the West (33,000 salmon).
11:02 a.m.
Mar 30, '07
Whenever I hear about the "Club for Growth," I always think "Hair Club for Men." I just can't help it.
Mar 30, '07
Now he knows how Bush feels.
Mar 30, '07
Did you catch this on Rove and Smith - Rove's role in helping Smith get re-elected in 2002 by virtually ordering the Dept. of Interior to change its policy and release water to the "base" - the farmers in eastern Oregon, resulting in possibly the largest fish kill in the history of the West (33,000 salmon).
That water release was for the benefit of belligerent farmers in the Klamath Basin with Greg Walden also an accomplice in this fish kill that occurred in the Klamath River.
Mar 30, '07
This doesn't surprise me at all. The Club for Growth is linked very closely with Freedomworks - the two were both founded by the Kochs. Interestingly, the Kochs are suspected to be the main funders behind the Howard Rich ballot measures for term limits, TABOR and property rights that we saw in several states last year and the organizations that funded those measures share office space with Club for Growth. And Sizemore's "sugar daddy" - Dick Went - is a big supporter of Club for Growth, Freedomworks, and other Koch groups. In fact, Wendt's money man, Ted Abram, may very well be the Oregon conduit for Koch legislation and dollars. Sizemore worked with Freedomworks on measures during the last election cycle and we all know he's also been tight with Grover Norquist, who is also tied in with these same players. They have a lot of money to spend and a now-known network of astroturf groups. The question is whether they are stupid enough to run Sizemore against Smith.
That's why I'd say we should hope for Sizemore and keep an eye on their other favorite candidate - Kevin Mannix.
Mar 30, '07
Incidentally, Dylan Amo, the head of the new Club for Growth Oregon, was a registered lobbyist for Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform for quite awhile.
2:51 p.m.
Mar 30, '07
Occasionally, even the Club for Growth is kinda right. Gordon Smith IS big spender -- he never criticizes any form of spending. We may not agree on the details, but we can agree on that, and use the Club's specific argument against Smith.
Mar 30, '07
The bit missing here is that Howard Rich RUNS the Club for Growth, State Action. CFG was originally founded by one of the top officers of the CATO Institute (on whose board Rich sits) and won the Idaho GOP primary by gushing cash into Bill Sali's campaign, "bundled" contributions to the Idaho limit from Florida, New York, Alabama, etc. etc.
The Club for Growth has their OWN agenda, pretty much a "party within a party," or, more accurately, a cult within a cult.
The good news? They're incompetent boobs. An "insider" tipped me after the election:
Looking for that note, I also found this, which the "insider" wrote (presciently) on November 19th:
Same funding, same players, different names. Watch the pea, not the shells.
Mar 30, '07
not to get off topic, but weren't there much bigger salmon kills when all those dams on the columbia were erected (esp. grande coulee). and when the fish ladders were turned off on bonneville or the dalles for hubert humphrey to speak during a salmon run?
Mar 30, '07
"Is the Club for Growth about to target Gordon Smith?"
We can only hope so. We need to target each and every Republican in office until the enemy is defeated. Once we control all of government, only then will Oregon be ONE!
LONG LIVE BLUE OREGON!
6:05 p.m.
Mar 30, '07
Pedro - are you really talking about events that happened 50 and 40 years ago?
Mar 30, '07
Pedro - have any links? Further, I don't see why it would make Rove's abuse of govt resources and the resulting destruction of the environment any less egregious. It seems you think that somehow Rove's wrongdoing should therefore be excused? That's not a very persuasive argument.
Mar 30, '07
I suggest we all join the Club for Growth Oregon, at least through the next primary.
Mar 30, '07
weren't there much bigger salmon kills when all those dams on the columbia were erected
Yeah, there were.
And your point is...? Remind me which office holder I should be holding accountable for that. I think they're probably all dead. It's been 50 years since The Dalles Dam went in and it was one of the latter ones.
On a related note, back when GW was campaigning in '00 and he stated he would not even consider allowing the removal of any federal dams on the Columbia, he was immediately crossed off my list. And I was a registered Republican. Living in Texas. (Not that any of that matters... I'm just sayin'...)
Back on topic: I've gotta agree with Steve Novick as far as Gordon Smith's track record is concerned. He is made out of the same mold as ol' GW: socially conservative, fiscally irresponsible.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid many Republicans seem to be more concerned with the social side of things rather than addressing the fiscal nightmare we've found ourselves in, courtesy of you-know-who and the War in Error. So all Gordon really has to do is scream "abortion" or "gay marriage" and wait for the the Sunday sermons to follow suit.
Mar 31, '07
Boy, after reading all of the Blue Oregon partisan hack diatribes I thought Gordon Smith was TO THE RIGHT of the Club for Growth. Imagine my surprise!
Mar 31, '07
Pardon the cynicism of my earlier post - if the Democrats put the right candidate up against Gordon Smith (not DeFazio) I will vote Democratic.
It's just that Gordon Smith is not the devil incarnate, as many many threads and posts have more than intimated. And this is proof of that.
11:36 p.m.
Mar 31, '07
No, it's just proof that the Club for Growth is full of a bunch of insane extremists. Gordon is a good 95% vote for them. But that doesn't appear to be good enough.
Apr 2, '07
If they were pushing, say, Jason Atkinson I could see it. But Sizemore? I wouldn't put it past the Club or part of the OR GOP to try, but I can't see his success with tax inits in the past translate into credibility as a candidate -- even in the primary, really.