Club for Growth's electoral tactics causing headaches for GOP
They eat their own.
Club for Growth's electoral tactics causing headaches for GOP
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If you want to know how Sen. Arlen Specter [[Pa.) was driven from office, look beyond the Democratic primary he lost Tuesday. Instead, consider the role played by a small conservative group called the Club for Growth....
Democrats, however, are thrilled to see a conservative group stoking discontent within the GOP. "The Club for Growth seems to be in a competition with the Tea Party to see how much damage they can do to the Republican Party and how extreme and rigidly ideological they can make it," Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said in a written statement.
Although the organization hopes to benefit from populist discontent, its roots are decidedly elite....
Over the past decade, the Club for Growth has gained a reputation for targeting centrist Republicans, like Specter and Crist, for being insufficiently conservative on fiscal issues. In the case of Bennett, the group objected to his vote in favor of the Wall Street bailout in 2008 -- a move backed by then-President Bush -- and his work with Sen. Ron Wyden [[D-Ore.) on an alternate health-care overhaul plan.
Starting in January, the organization focused on Utah's arcane system of caucuses and a convention for GOP nominees, using e-mail lists, Facebook and other Internet tools to notify and enlist ultra-conservative supporters. By packing the March caucuses with newcomers hostile to Bennett, the Club for Growth ensured Bennett's resounding defeat at the state nominating convention on May 8.
The cost of the effort was just $177,000 -- a mere fraction of the $2 million or more commonly required to topple an incumbent U.S. senator. "We took out Bennett for about as much as a senator's annual salary," said Club for Growth spokesman Mike Connolly....
