GOP Paid Price for Abandoning Principles
Has the lesson been learned?
Republicans nationwide and in Pennsylvania on Tuesday got a lesson in the wisdom expressed in the old saying “dance with the one who brought you.”
The diminished status of the GOP both in Washington, D.C. and in Harrisburg is directly attributable to the abandonment of Republican principles by Republican candidates once they became elected officials. In 1994, voters gave Congressional Republicans majority status for the first time in a generation because they wanted lower taxes, an end to reckless spending, and more open and ethical government. Many Republicans in Congress abandoned those principles, losing the trust of voters in the process.
Over the past decade Pennsylvania Republicans had steadily built substantial majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. As did their national brethren, many rank and file Pennsylvania legislators also lost sight of their party’s principles. Although Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature during Governor Ed Rendell’s first term, virtually his entire agenda was enacted. It became impossible to tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats.
The Republican sell-out in Harrisburg was profound and deep. During the past four years Republican votes enabled the passage of the second largest tax increase in state history, record levels of growth in state spending, legalized slot machine gambling, over $10 billion in new indebtedness, and expanded spending on corporate welfare and entitlement programs. All were an abandonment of core Republican principles.
And then there was the pay raise.
Republican complicity in the middle-of-the-night pay-jacking sent shock waves of revulsion through the party base. The top two leaders of the state senate and ten percent of the house Republican caucus went down to defeat in the primary – this even after a near record number of retirements. Tuesday, a minimum of eight Republican-held seats were reclaimed by the Democrats. Only the unexpected loss of House Democrat Whip Michael Veon saved the Republican majority, which apparently will survive by just one seat. The Veon loss also can be attributed to the pay raise: he was the lone member of either chamber to vote against its repeal.
Having been chastened by voters, the big issue now is whether Republicans will get the message that the party is seriously off on the wrong course and new leadership must be elected that will be willing and able to restore Republican principles to state government. Leadership elections will be held next week and will provide the first indication of whether or not the message has been heard.
With the top two leadership posts vacant, a spirited battle is underway in the senate. Keeping in mind both President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and Majority Leader Chip Brightbill were ousted over the pay raise, the election to either of those two offices of another senator who supported the pay raise would be a slap in the face to voters.
In the house, speaker John Perzel was a prime architect of the pay raise. The losing Republicans this year – both in the primary and general elections – were largely his allies, many of whom lost because of the pay raise issue. Having failed to protect his minions, it would be foolhardy for the returning members of the GOP caucus and newly-elected legislators to return him to a leadership post. Further, Perzel was the enabler-in-chief for passage of the Rendell agenda that ran counter to core Republican principles. Thus, retention of Perzel as speaker (or minority leader) would signal a refusal by the house Republican caucus to return to the principles of the Republican Party.
Finally, the state Republican Party itself is in need of a new direction. For two election cycles in a row party leaders have used heavy-handed tactics to clear the primary field for its hand-picked candidate for governor. Both elections ended in overwhelming defeat. It is time for state Republicans to place their trust in voters and return to them their right to select nominees for statewide offices by offering a choice in primary elections. Further, the Republican State Committee must end the top-down model of decision making that has allowed many of the now discredited legislative leaders, among others, to dictate candidates rather than allowing such decisions to grow from the grassroots upward.
