Names big and small battle for soul of GOP in key Senate elections

The weakened party infrastructure and optimism about 2010 have crowded Senate races and produced just one clear primary in a dozen key contests. And, in several cases, local officials and activists are bristling at the direction the national GOP has taken in those races.

{mosads}Contests in Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Kentucky and California have featured local Republicans speaking out against national party involvement.

Republican Party chairmen in Colorado and New Hampshire have spoken out against the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) involvement after the committee bought up website domains for Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) and hosted a fundraiser for former Granite State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R).

Both races feature other less-prominent and less-hyped primary candidates who nonetheless have significant standing — a pattern that is covering many other GOP Senate primaries.

In fact, former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) is the only major challenger or open-seat candidate without a primary on his hands.

The NRSC also has drawn heat for endorsing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in his contested Senate primary with former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Another notable example is Kentucky, where the NRSC is hosting a fundraiser for Secretary of State Trey Grayson later this month, despite eye surgeon Rand Paul’s traction in the money chase and recent polling.

When the Ayotte fundraiser was announced a month ago, New Hampshire GOP Chairman and former White House Chief of Staff John Sununu publicly advised Ayotte that the NRSC’s blessing could work against her in a likely primary against former gubernatorial nominee Ovide Lamontagne.

And Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams last week forcefully fought back against the NRSC’s perceived favoritism for Norton, calling the grass roots-level reaction to it a “backlash.”

Norton opened an exploratory committee for the race against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) on Wednesday.

“I fully intend to let them know that Colorado Republicans expect to select their nominee themselves, without the endorsement of outside groups,” Wadhams told The Denver Post, guaranteeing that the NRSC wouldn’t endorse in the race.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck was supposed to yield to Norton, and local reports previewed the announcement. But, emboldened after the brouhaha, he wound up reasserting his candidacy.

“Our party’s nominee will be chosen by Colorado’s grassroots Republicans, not by political operatives in Washington, D.C.,” Buck said.

The NRSC has been unapologetic about getting involved in primaries, having already endorsed Crist, Toomey, Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and former Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). But the support for Ayotte, Grayson and Norton is so far unofficial.

When asked if the NRSC’s facilities and assistance would be available to those three candidates’ primary opponents, NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh demurred.

“We don’t engage in hypotheticals,” Walsh said. “We look at every state and every race on a case-by-case basis. And I would far prefer the situation Republicans find themselves in in a number of races, versus the very serious primaries we’re seeing among Democrats in key states.”

Indeed, Democrats have more competitive primaries in key open-seat races in Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spokesman Eric Schultz said the GOP’s primaries will lead to jockeying for social-conservative votes, which could come back to haunt it in centrist states.

“The disarray surfacing in the Republican ranks in these states is symptomatic of an ideological battle that could and likely will impact their ability to win a general election,” Schultz said.

As the DSCC has found out in recent cycles, there is often consternation when the national party gets involved in state politics. The question is usually how significant the detractors are.

Most of the GOP primaries involve reputable conservative primary opponents who could, at least, do some damage before the general election. On most of them, though, the jury will be out for a while.

Buck and Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier will oppose Norton in Colorado. In Ohio, car dealer Tom Ganley threatened to spend upward of $7 million against Portman. And in California, State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has conservative devotees and could draw some support against centrist former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.

DeVore this week decried a memo from the NRSC that included praise of Fiorina, taking direct aim at Chairman John Cornyn (Texas).

“Under John Cornyn, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has racked up an impressive string of endorsements in support of non-conservative, unpopular, poorly vetted candidates across the nation,” DeVore said. “These candidacies have thus far gone on to flounder or implode.”

Kirk faces a bevy of little-known Republicans and has the kind of centrist record that could leave him vulnerable to a conservative challenge, but that isn’t in the cards yet — even with Chicago developer Patrick Hughes starting to turn some heads.

“Maybe Pat Hughes could be that [alternative] if he can put together resources, but that’s an open question,” said an Illinois GOP consultant. “Kirk continues to get a lot of heat. He’s been booed at parades — even at GOP events that I’ve been at — but in the absence of a clear alternative, I do not see him having much of a problem.”

In many cases, in addition to being outsiders, the candidates are also more conservative. This is also the case in Connecticut, where former Rep. Rob Simmons faces more ideological challengers.

“These primaries are largely part of a battle for the heart and soul of the party,” said Jennifer Duffy of The Cook Political Report. “There are Republicans who strongly believe that the reason the party took a trouncing in two consecutive elections is because the party and its candidates weren’t conservative enough.

“This is a pretty simplistic analysis of the 2006 and 2008 results, but it has created many of these primaries.”