The quote of the week in Georgia politics comes from U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, the Republican congressman from Savannah who formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate Thursday. In an interview a day earlier, Kingston told the AJC’s Greg Bluestein that he “will yield no ground to any of my opponents as to who is the most conservative” in the Republican primary.
Somewhere, a Democratic strategist read those words, smiled and went back to work, encouraged that better days were coming for his party. And somewhere, Karl Rove shook his head in despair.
If Kingston intends to keep his word — and if he hopes to win the primary, he may have no choice — he’s going to have his work cut out for him. U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, the first to announce for the Senate seat, makes a strong claim as the most conservative person in the race. Broun has called President Barack Obama a Marxist and has described the president as a potential Hitler, although he later apologized for both remarks. He will do and say things that Kingston cannot duplicate.
A second Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta, was listed by the National Journal as one of 10 congressmen tied for the title as the most conservative member of the U.S. House. Again, Kingston doesn’t appear anywhere in the top 25.
Think about that for a minute. In a recent poll, only 23 percent of Americans said they thought the Republican Party is in touch with their concerns. Among moderates, only 20 percent described the GOP as in touch. Polls also indicate that if the Republican Party is considered extreme, its most extreme element is the House Republican caucus.
So in Georgia Republican politics, the key to electoral success is to define yourself as on the furthest extreme of an extreme caucus in a party viewed as extreme by a majority of American voters.
He wouldn’t want me to say this, but Kingston doesn’t fit that mold. He is at heart a competent, pragmatic, at times reasonable Republican who in the past has shown a willingness to compromise to get things done. That’s why he was put on the House Appropriations Committee, where the dealmakers of both parties are put to ply their trade. And although he would deny it, it is also why he will be the unannounced, unofficial choice of the GOP establishment in the race.
In most eras, politicians of either party would be pleased to be described as somebody who could get things done. But in this era, in this state, the party that Kingston hopes to represent does not reward candidates for such behavior. It punishes them. In fact, it was practically an act of bravery for Kingston to also point out this week that “I can work with the other party and do that without selling out our philosophy.”
It will be interesting to watch as Kingston tries to manage the tension between his instincts as a dealmaker and the demands of a party to which cooperation and compromise are synonyms for betrayal. Among other things, he could use a candidate in the race who can be depicted as more moderate than he is, and if former Secretary of State Karen Handel enters the race, he will attempt to cast her in that role. That tag already cost Handel the governor’s office in 2010, and she will fight bitterly to avoid it again.
Reviewing Senate races around the country, Rove mused this week in the Wall Street Journal that “Georgia will have a big primary, but should remain Republican unless a candidate ill-suited for the general election sneaks through the primary.” Kingston and Handel would each do well in November; their problem is the price they will have to pay to get there.
