Group aims to back conservatives
In Soviet Russia, the Communist Party required two things of communist politicians: orthodoxy and a membership card. It's much the same with the El Paso County Republican Party, except for the orthodoxy part. On the left, for example, we have Kit Roupe, who favors legalized abortion and tax increases, but finds a precarious foothold on the GOP's pro-war plank. On the right, we have the most thoroughly conservative legislators in the state.
As a matter of policy, the local GOP machine supports all Republicans, liberal and conservative. This is fact, not criticism. Republicans take pride in their grassroots activism, and the party doesn't want to second-guess its caucus-goers. After Republican voters select their Republican candidates, the party deploys cash, data and manpower to get those candidates elected, positions and principles notwithstanding.
A party apparatus is, by definition, partisan above all else. They might be inevitable, even inherently good, but their internal logic sometimes forces them to support candidates even the party's leaders secretly despise.
Bearing these realities in mind, it's not difficult to understand why Thomas Jefferson said, "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." It's frustrating for true believers to listen as party apparatchiks lavish praise on terrible candidates, simply because those candidates had the good sense to run as Republicans.
It's frustrating to watch the party refuse to take a position on controversial ballot issues, simply because a few elected Republicans decided to pick the wrong side.
That's why it's encouraging to know there's a new organization forming in El Paso County, one which can break through the party's structural imperatives to promote conservative causes and primary candidates, without worrying about the written and unwritten rules that govern party behavior.
This organization might be independent of any particular party, but its creators both boast impeccable Republican pedigrees: Patrick Davis is a former political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Nathan Fisk is the outgoing executive director of the El Paso County GOP.
Segments of the establishment will probably feel threatened by their new organization, but Fisk says, "Our goals are Republican goals. We represent an extension beyond the scope of the local GOP to challenge liberal politicians like state Rep. Merrifield, state Sen. Morse, and Gov. Ritter, and to aggressively promote fiscally and socially conservative candidates."
Davis has an especially impressive record of unseating liberal incumbents. In the days after the Iraq War started, then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle attacked President George W. Bush from the floor of the Senate.
In response, Davis had the NRSC make a phone call to every house in South Dakota, "putting Daschle's rhetoric on the record." In 2004, under Davis' guidance, the Senate's Republican majority increased from 51 to 55 seats. Daschle lost to Sen. John Thune.
When it comes to Democrats, therefore, Davis and Fisk will be working in perfect harmony with the Republican Party itself. But their organization could also take stances on primaries and ballot issues, interconnected areas the GOP typically avoids.
Ballot issues often serve to reveal a politician's philosophy. If a Republican hopeful supports a bad tax increase, for example, that might send a message to Davis and Fisk that they should promote a more conservative candidate. Principled activism of this kind could keep Republicans from straying too far from their platform, a phenomenon all too common in towns where one party rules.
Their extra-partisan model also disposes with the campaign finance regulations that constrain regular political parties. Contributions to the El Paso County GOP are capped at an annual $3,125, but there's no limit to the amount of money conservatives could channel through Davis and Fisk. Davis says the organization aims "to level the playing field against the influx of radically liberal money and candidates encroaching on Colorado," referring in part to mega-donors such as Tim Gill.
The whole point of their organization is to find principled conservatives and help the grassroots elect them to office. In this spirit, Davis and Fisk are calling all wordsmiths and activists to help them devise a clever name.
I should warn you, however, that Patrick Davis and Nathan Fisk turn out to be pretty ingenious literary judges. Sen. Keith King and I were pushing for "King Cole" when Fisk winked, mentioned "Nat King Cole," and started singing the lyrics to "Straighten Up and Fly Right."
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Cole, of Colorado Springs, is a writer, translator and political organizer. Readers can reach him at dancoloradan@yahoo.com.
