WASHINGTON — A year into Tom Graves’ career in Congress, the time came to set his course.
By his telling, the Republican from Ranger faced an ultimatum from third-ranking Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy late this spring: Commit to McCarthy and the GOP leadership’s “whip team,” or side with the Republican Study Committee, which is tasked with moving policy as far to the right as possible.
Graves chose the conservatives. He described the parting as amicable, while McCarthy, through a spokeswoman, declined comment.
With the RSC, Graves chose conservative orthodoxy over adhering to party leaders’ agenda, as seen when he recently helped lead a campaign against a spending bill that he said didn’t cut enough. The effort helped defeat the bill on the floor, an embarrassing setback for leadership, though the House passed a similar bill the next day.
Graves cast the RSC choice as “putting principle over my own political career,” but he has an eye on a political rise within the study committee, which he calls the “conscience” of the GOP caucus, that could place him at the helm of the right wing of the House.
Representing one of the most right-leaning congressional districts in the country, Graves has built an ultraconservative voting record, and even potential primary election challengers acknowledge it will be nearly impossible to run at him from the right in his newly redrawn district.
Spending has been the primary message Graves has brought to Washington, befitting the focus of most GOP newcomers. He serves on the Appropriations Committee, once the domain of legislators whose goal was to steer money home to their districts. But Congress got rid of all earmarks this year, leaving Appropriations as the venue for conservatives’ line-by-line budget cutting.
RSC Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, appointed Graves as an informal lieutenant to gauge RSC members’ stances on key spending bills this year. And Graves is pondering a run for chairman of the RSC in the next Congress — if he is re-elected — which would make him a conservative leader in Congress and give him a nationally visible soapbox.
“Several members have approached me and asked me to give that consideration,” Graves said of the RSC chair position, which changes hands every two years. “And I respect their thoughts and opinions, and out of respect to them, that’s something I’d consider.”
The movements have Republican colleagues talking about him as a young member on the rise.
“Tom Graves is a principled conservative who has already emerged as a leader in Congress,” Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., an influential conservative whom Graves singled out as a mentor, said in a statement.
“I believe Congressman Graves will be an important voice for conservative values in Washington, D.C., for many years to come.”
It was a grueling task for Graves, 41, to make it to Washington in the first place. The former state representative, who always sports cowboy boots under his suits reflecting his North Georgia country roots, had to run five elections in 91 days last year to fill the unfinished term of now-Gov. Nathan Deal and then win the full two-year term.
Moving to solidify his support, Graves has held monthly conference calls and one in-person meeting with tea party and other grass-roots leaders, a group he calls the “liberty council,” to explain goings-on in Washington and get feedback. He’s done the same with an “economic council” of business leaders.
The State of Georgia Tea Party endorsed one of Graves’ primary foes, and took a swipe at him early in his term for votes it saw as fueling federal overreach. But group leader Bill Evelyn, who is not part of the liberty council, said Graves has become a strong states’ rights, small-government conservative.
“He learned at an exponential rate,” Evelyn said.
Based on the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s “Partisan Voting Index,” Graves’ district is one of the most Republican-leaning in the country. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of his new 14th District, redrawn for the 2012 elections and awaiting approval from the Department of Justice under Voting Rights Act guidelines, shows a 49-point Republican advantage there.
His crimson red constituency is reflected in his votes.
Heritage Action, the advocacy arm of the powerful conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, gives Graves a 97 percent voting record score — tying him for second-most Heritage-friendly House member.
Graves probably will face a primary challenger next year, in part because of his vastly redrawn district.
By Graves’ count, he has to get to know more than 300,000 new constituents, and he’s starting by meeting GOP organizers in each of the new counties.
Former Paulding County Commission Chairman Jerry Shearin is among the new additions to Graves’ district and is working to see if he could mount a successful run, but he acknowledged the challenge of running against Graves.
“He’s got all the right things personally, a nice family and all that, and he’s probably voting the way the district wants him to,” Shearin said.
Chickamauga businessman Steve Tarvin ran for the seat in 2010 and also is discussing a primary run against Graves next year. Though he finds Graves to be sufficiently conservative, Tarvin previewed a campaign argument against the incumbent.
“I just think we need more business-minded people that occasionally have an original thought outside of being a politician,” Tarvin said.
He added that Republicans are not doing a good enough selling job to win independent voters. Tarvin also thinks the GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” deficit plan does not go far enough because it allows government spending to rise as the economy grows.
Tarvin also alluded to Graves’ financial troubles that could prove to be a potent campaign issue.
A North Georgia bank accused Graves and state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of defaulting on a $2.2 million loan to purchase and renovate a motel in Calhoun, while Graves and Rogers said the bank reneged on a promise to renegotiate the loan with more favorable terms.
The parties reached an undisclosed settlement in August, but Graves’ legal claim that the bank was at fault for lending him money he could not repay opens the door for charges of hypocrisy against a politician who accuses the government of living beyond its means.
Yet Evelyn, of Forsyth County, whose group endorsed Tarvin in 2010, said Graves’ bank troubles are a valuable learning experience.
“He can say, ‘I’ve listened. I’ve matured. Debt’s not good. That’s why I’ve tried to stop the spending [in Washington],’ ” Evelyn said.
Graves’ work on the Appropriations Committee has earned him praise in Washington.
“He’s done a great job, and just underscoring and highlighting how serious the fiscal situation is for the nation,” said Jordan, the Republican Study Committee chairman, “and doing it in a committee that’s not always known for that kind of perspective and that kind of focus.”
A run for Jordan’s chair would raise that profile further.
The process will not begin in earnest for Graves’ RSC run until next year. Jordan said Graves “would be an outstanding person” for the job, but he said he expects other strong candidates to emerge, and he is far from endorsing one.
RSC chairs have gone on to leadership positions in the House GOP (Rep. Tom Price of Roswell is now in the No. 5 House leadership position) and a gubernatorial run (Pence), but Graves insists his master plan is no more than “work hard to do what’s right, keep our future generation in focus and the future of our country in focus. And where that leads is still yet to be seen.”
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Meet Tom Graves
Age: 41
Education: Bachelor's degree in business administration specializing in finance, University of Georgia, 1993.
Profession: Small-business owner in commercial real estate.
Political experience: Member, U.S. House of Representatives, June 2010-present; member, U.S. House Appropriations Committee; member, Georgia House of Representatives, 2003-2010.
Military experience: None.
Civic experience: Former member, Gordon County Board of Elections, Gordon County Chamber of Commerce and Gordon County Right to Life.
Family status: Married to Julie Howard Graves; three children, JoAnn, John and Janey.
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