Friday, July 06, 2007

House Conservatives Fund

Posted yesterday at CQPolitics.com

By Nathan Levinson | 10:45 AM; Jul. 05, 2007

The Kansas Republican Party has endured a long-running feud between its conservative activist wing and more moderate "establishment" wing. For years, though, its impact was felt in U.S. House politics only in the suburban Kansas City 3rd District, where the GOP rift abetted the efforts of centrist Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore to win and hold the district.

Elsewhere, the Republican divide was tamped down by the dominance of conservative Republican incumbents who seemed to be entrenched in Kansas' other three congressional districts.

That changed, however, with the 2006 election in the eastern 2nd District, in which Democrat Nancy Boyda upset five-term Republican Rep. Jim Ryun -- a staunch conservative on economic and social issues -- by 51 percent to 47 percent.

Ryun almost immediately stated his intention to seek a rematch, blaming his defeat largely on the national anti-Republican climate that cost the GOP control of both the House and the Senate. His supporters noted that 2nd District voters just two years earlier had gone strongly Republican for president, favoring President George W. Bush by 20 percentage points over Democrat John Kerry.

But district Republicans who lean more to the center said the party needed a new face. And they got one when state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, re-elected to her current office in a 2006 landslide, announced her candidacy in early April.

The Ryun-Jenkins matchup has opened up a new front in the battle for control of the Kansas GOP -- even though the August 2008 primary is still more than a year away.

Jenkins already has faced criticism from conservative groups such as the Club for Growth, a national political action group that emphasizes conservative views on economic issues, and the House Conservatives Fund, headed by conservative Republican House incumbents.

The Club for Growth has run ads lambasting Jenkins as a "tax hiker," and recently increased funding for the media campaign to $100,000. The House Conservatives Fund has formally endorsed the comeback bid by former colleague Ryun; the group's chairman, Florida Rep. Tom Feeney, called Ryun "a proven conservative."

The surprise is not the messages sent out by these organizations, but how early they have been willing to start spreading their message across the state.

Joe Aistrup, a political science professor who follows state elections at Kansas State University, said, "Late in the process everyone expects it. But this early in the process, if I am Lynn Jenkins, I am a little worried."

The efforts by these outside groups to define Jenkins in an unfavorable manner could force her to respond in defense of her record, using up precious resources early in the campaign. If this occurred, it could place her at a financial disadvantage to Ryun as the primary campaign heats up next year.

Washburn University Professor Bob Beatty said the early attack ads could even hinder Jenkins' fundraising, stating they "might just slow down contributions to Jenkins' nascent 2nd District campaign."

Jenkins already is playing catchup in the money race, as Ryun never really stopped running after his 2006 defeat. He reported that he already had raised $275,000 in the year's first quarter, with $257,000 on hand as of March 31. He undoubtedly added to his receipts during the second quarter, which ended June 30 and for which reports must be filed to the Federal Election Commission by July 15.

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