September 29, 2006
DeMint Wants To Slow Things Down In SC
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), in an implicit rebuke of Sen. John McCain’s aggressive courtship of Republicans in his state, is urging party leaders to wait until after November’s midterm elections before deciding on a presidential candidate to endorse.
“I understand that efforts are already underway to secure commitments for the Presidential primary, even though it is still well over a year away,” DeMint writes in the letter, which will be mailed to about 10,000 activists and precinct captains today. “While there are clear benefits to starting early, I believe we must remain focused on the task at hand: electing our Republican team in South Carolina this November.”
The letter was given to the Hotline by a South Carolina Republican.
DeMint, then a first-term Congressman, supported George W. Bush in the contentious 2000 South Carolina primary and has not warmed to McCain in the years since. That DeMint found it necessary to write such a letter more than a year before the 2008 primary testifies to both the extraordinarily early public competition for endorsements in the state as well as McCain’s success in winning major Republican figures to his still-nascent 2008 campaign.
They include State Sen. John Courson, Attorney General Henry McMaster, former attorney Charlie Condon and Bart Daniel, one of the first Republicans to support Bush in ’00. On Thursday, Strom Thurmond Jr., the son of the long-serving senator, and Carroll Campbell III, the son of a beloved governor, joined McCain’s political action committee.
DeMint’s fellow Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, is one of McCain’s closest friends and has telephoned dozens of Republicans in the state on McCain’s behalf.
Read parts of the letter this morning, McMaster, the SC GOP's chair in 2000, said that DeMint's concerns rang hollow . "In that case they'd better go rebuke Ronald Reagan and George Bush and everybody else that came to South Carolina years before the presidential election to seek support and committments and build their campaign team," McMaster said. :That's the way it's been done since our first primary in 1980."
Early campaigning, he said, "is what has built the party and built the strength of the party."
All nine statewide office holders, including Gov. Mark Sanford, are on the ballot, and a few powerful state legislators face competitive challenges from Democrats. DeMint writes that Republicans “cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by '08 campaigning.”
Still, few, if any Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their jobs, which means that some may read the letter as an attempt to slow down McCain’s momentum in the state.
MARC AMBINDER]
DeMint's letter counsels patience.
“When it comes to the 2008 Presidential Primary, I plan to take time after November to learn more about each of these candidates and where they stand on our key conservative issues, before deciding which one to support. I encourage you to do the same. South Carolina has the opportunity to select the next President of the United States...let' take our time and do it right.”
Responds McMaster: "It is totally unreasonable to suggest that Republicans here are incapable of focusing on the November election and at the same time prepare for the presidential primary because they've been doing exactly that [for years].
DeMint notes that he has met with several potential presidential candidates. According to Republicans in the state, they include McCain, Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Gov. George Pataki (R-NY), Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) and Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA).
Romney’s allies in the state say he has lined up several endorsements but has been cautioned by DeMint and others to keep them secret until after the election.
McCain’s strategy for South Carolina proceeds along two tracks. By sewing up endorsements from prominent Republicans, he’ll have a slew of surrogates when he begins to make his case to voters in the state.
Some of his public endorsements have not been planned. At a fundraiser for state Adjutant General Stan Spears this summer, Spears suddenly announced his support for McCain. McCain’s advisers said at the time that Spears had wanted to wait until after the election but changed his mind that night. Spears was a critical supporter of Bush’s in 2000.
Posted at 11:18 AM
Comments
Have Republicans totally become "living doctrine" like creatures? John McCain abandoned a purist support of Our Second Amendment, long ago. A compromise is fine when both sides win. I don't see this approach with McCain. He accepts the label Maverick and yet behaves no differently than many Democrats.
God help Americans!
David | 10.02.06 08:41 PM
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