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WASHINGTON – The congressional faction of the Republican Party remains front and center as its members battle President Obama and the Democrats over health care, financial regulatory overhaul, climate change and just about every other domestic issue.
But it is increasingly clear that the future of the GOP rests in the hands of the Republican governors.
The ranks of the Republican governors and former governors include savvy older pros, some celebrities, the biggest crop of prospective 2012 presidential candidates and bright young leaders on the rise, and they face the possibility of enhancements to their ranks after the 2010 midterm elections that will draw even more attention to their work in the states.
The last time Republicans rose from the ashes, the public face of their restoration to power was Newt Gingrich, the flame-throwing speaker of the House who eventually flamed out himself.
But the intellectual ballast came from the ranks of the governors, who already had proven to be the policy innovators.
The congressional ranks today include any number of politicians with talent and skills, but no one comparable to Gingrich. That makes it all the more likely that, if Republicans win a considerable number of seats in 2010, they will be even more reliant on the governors to provide the policy and political leadership necessary to make the party competitive once again in a presidential election.
Haley Barbour is the one thread of continuity between the Republican restoration of 1994 and their comeback hopes in 2010. Then, he was chairman of the Republican National Committee; today, he is in his second term as governor of Mississippi and is chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
In 1993 and 1994, he was a shrewd but mostly behind-the-scenes player to Gingrich’s out-front leadership role in the midterm elections that drove Democrats from power. Today he is front and center as a spokesman, strategist, fundraiser and counselor, looked to by congressional leaders and other governors for leadership in challenging the Democrats. They do not underestimate him as a formidable adversary.
The other older pro is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. He is the northern wing of the axis of experience the Republicans have within the gubernatorial ranks. Like Barbour, he is a former White House political director. Like Barbour, he is well grounded in policy, having served as budget director in former President George W. Bush’s White House.
Daniels has been a highly successful governor who has kept focused on his state’s economic problems. He is a plainspoken conservative who has been outspoken about his party’s problems. Republicans, he argues, must earn back the public’s trust, and in Indiana he has provided a model for his party of how to go about doing that.
If Barbour and Daniels form the ranks of old pros, young pros are rising within the ranks. The youngest is Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has been on a fast track all his adult life.
He had a terrible introduction to the nation this year when he was picked to give the GOP response to Obama’s first speech as president to a joint session of Congress. But appearances can be deceiving.
Jindal has a considerable intellect and command of many of the issues that will be front and center. Whether he can prove himself on a national stage isn’t known, but he could give Republicans fresh ideas and a platform from which to test them.
Farther north is Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is finishing his second term while still in his late 40s. He is a conservative from a blue-collar family who narrowly won two tough elections in a state partial to Democrats. He has his eyes on a run for president in 2012.
Former Republican governors retain national followings. One needs to look no further than the New York Times best-seller list to be reminded of that. Sarah Palin tops the list with her book, “Going Rogue,” and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is on the list with his book, “A Simple Christmas.” In March, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will test his book-selling skills with “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.”
Palin, Huckabee and Romney are all prospective candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. All three carry baggage from their 2008 candidacies, and Huckabee has been badly damaged of late for granting clemency in 1990 to Maurice Clemmons, who shot and killed four police officers in Washington last month before being killed himself.
But one or more of them likely will be a serious contender for the 2012 nomination. Palin gives authentic voice to the anti-Washington grievances and resentments that threaten the Democrats. Romney, a successful businessman before turning to politics, could be well positioned to speak to the country’s economic problems.
Republicans control governorships in the nation’s two biggest states. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, still the biggest celebrity in the GOP ranks, is on his way out of office next year after a tumultuous tenure. He embodies the vanishing model of fiscal conservative and social moderate that some Republicans believe must be part of the party’s future.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry is hoping to add four years to the 10 he has already served by defeating Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in their nasty primary and then winning another term for himself in November. Over the past year, he has emerged as another leader in the anti-Washington movement with talk of secession that has made him the darling of many conservatives.
By this time next year, Republicans might have new governors in some of the nation’s biggest states. GOP leaders are bullish about the prospects of state attorney general Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania, where Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell is term-limited. They see John Kasich, the former chairman of the House Budget Committee, as a threat to Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland in Ohio.
In California, Republicans have a three-way primary under way, with the winner likely to face former governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown in November. Former eBay Chairman Meg Whitman is the best known among the GOP contenders and a potential national figure if she gets elected.
