February 26, 2009
Sanford Sees Stimulus Fight As First Step Back For GOP
By
Mike Memoli
By the time governors arrived in Washington last weekend for their annual winter meeting, several of Republicans in the group had announced that they would choose not to accept certain portions of the federal dollars allocated to their states. So it was notable that among the group of 10 or so governors who attended the opening press conference Saturday, only one was a Republican Vermont's Jim Douglas.
When that fact was pointed out to the group, there was a nervous laughter as each looked around to make sure. "Some of the controversy about the federal recovery act dollars I think is overblown," Douglas said. "I think that the recovery of the American economy is not a partisan issue."
Elsewhere, some governors were making a different case. Those who were choosing to forego some federal dollars argued that it was a matter of principle, but Democrats sought to take advantage of what it saw as a rift in the GOP.
"All of us are committed to working with President Obama to pull our nation's economy out of the ditch that George Bush ran it in to. If some of the fringe governors don't want to help us do that, then they need to do step aside and not stand in the way of the nation's interests,² said Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Md.), speaking at an event organized by the Democratic Governors Association just hours after attending the same press conference as Douglas.
The comment lit a fire under Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), one of those governors who had voiced opposition to receiving a part of the stimulus funding.
"I would humbly suggest that the real fringe are those that are supporting the stimulus that's not at all in keeping with the principles that made this country great, and not at all in keeping with the economic reality," he told RCP Saturday. "I think the nation's governors are going through -- particularly the "fringey" ones -- and doing what should have been done in the Congress."
Democrats have immediately responded to complaints about fiscal management by pointing to eight years of "disastrous" governing under President Bush. But Sanford's message is one that he and his counterparts among the governors hope is receptive to Republicans looking for a way forward.
"I think that the people that are making the stance have fairly clear credentials," Sanford said. "It's just the way I'm wired and what I believe. And so, this is not exactly new from the standpoint. ... I think people are just laying out where they have been, in some cases for a very long time."
Speaking later that night at a Republican Governors Association dinner, Sanford repeated O¹Malley's quote for his colleagues to hear, seeming to adopt the "fringe" term as a badge of honor.
"I don't see folks who are really wired to step aside," he said, calling his colleagues the "last ones standing" in the fight for conservative values.
Scattered around the room, however, were leaders like Douglas and Gov.
Charlie Crist (R-Fla.), who appeared with President Obama at an event in Florida to promote the stimulus bill. Sanford acknowledged differences in views, but made clear in the interview that he believed his were in the right.
"You have 50 different states, and we're going to have different takes on what works and what doesn't work," he said. "I think the bigger issue, though, is, is anybody minding the company store? Call us fringe, but what we're talking about is very much the middle."
Sanford, as chairman of the RGA, sees this year's races in Virginia and New Jersey as potentially setting the stage for a Republican comeback. And next year is what he calls the "Super Bowl" of gubernatorial races, with 36 governorships at stake.
"It's the first time in 16 years that Republicans have held neither House, Senate nor White House," Sanford said. "As a member of the minority, you can do a good job of blocking things, stopping things, trying to stop things, slow things. It's very difficult to actually advance policy. And so I think it creates that much more policy importance from the standpoint of governorships, because they happen to be the last guys standing."
But how much of this battle was not so much about 2010, but 2012? Most of the so-called "fringe" governors are seen as potential candidates in four years though others, like Gov. Tim Pawlenty, had struck a more moderate stance. Despite divisions, they were equally evasive about 2012, downplaying that these moves now were calculated for advantage then.
"Nobody I've talked to has said, I'm doing this so I can connect 50,000 dominoes that might lead to something in 2012," Sanford said.
In fact, he had praise for President Obama's meteoric rise, saying he had tears in his eyes watching him deliver his victory speech on Election Night.
"I don't want him to fail. Anybody who wants him to fail is an idiot, because it means we're all in trouble," he said. "[But if you] legitimately think that something ain't going to work, you'd be cheating him and cheating yourself if you didn't lay it out and call an ace an ace in terms of where you're coming from."
Mike Memoli covers the White House for RealClearPolitics. He can be reached at
mmemoli@realclearpolitics.com
