HERSHEY, Pa. — Stripped of weapons to enforce party discipline, Republican leaders find themselves relying on soft power to whip votes and forge consensus.
The GOP regime that ran Congress from 1994 to 2006 tightly controlled access to campaign fundraising and doled out billions of dollars in earmarks to keep members in line and cajole votes on controversial legislation. The leadership would propose and the rank and file would dispose. That era of politics is long gone. House and Senate Republicans have sworn off earmarks, with the Internet and social media easing members’ connection to voters and campaign cash.
To compensate, the new GOP majorities have turned to education and persuasion. Republican whips in the House and Senate, once elected by their peers to serve as internal enforcers, now spend more time teaching and explaining than threatening and arm-twisting. This bottom-up, democratic approach to building support for initiatives has always held more currency in the Senate, where individual members have an extraordinary amount of parliamentary power.
But it’s also become the norm in the House, where power runs through the majority caucus and its senior members. Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told the Washington Examiner that the days of speakers who ruled with an iron fist, such as now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have “long since passed.”
“That may have worked then; it doesn’t work now,” Walden said. “Republicans are on full display of the chaos of democracy at work, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. This is how the founders put it together.”
House and Senate Republicans were gathered Thursday and Friday at the Hershey Lodge in central Pennsylvania for their first joint policy retreat in a decade. The GOP won Senate control in November, and Republicans in both chambers are hoping to reach common ground as potentially divisive issues loom, such as how to fund the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a Feb. 27 deadline and confronting President Obama’s executive order on immigration.
Unity could prove crucial to moving their agenda forward. But Republicans aren’t inclined to pursue punitive measures to discipline members, usually small conservative factions, who break ranks and threaten the party’s ability to govern, putting their soft power approach to the test. That was evident in House Speaker John Boehner’s decision not to punish Republicans who voted against him for speaker.
Although the two who opposed him for a third term as speaker, Florida Reps. Richard Nugent and Daniel Webster, were kicked off the influential House Rules Committee, no other retribution is likely to be meted out, sources confirmed Thursday, despite pleas for action from Boehner’s rank-and-file allies. Boehner years ago was kicked out of leadership for opposing a speaker, though not in a floor vote, and he believes an opponent today could be a supporter tomorrow.
In the Senate, new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has brought Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Tea Party favorite, into his fold as a counselor. Lee and McConnell hardly have a chummy history, although the majority leader shrewdly keeps potential enemies close. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who was vice president of grassroots outreach for the NRSC, the Senate’s campaign arm, was not asked to return, likely because he is focused on running for president as opposed to retribution for his role in the 2013 government shutdown.
Even before outside groups were around to offer wayward members means of political support outside the party infrastructure, putting the hard sell on members was less effective in the Senate. The chamber runs on unanimous consent, allowing even the most junior member of the minority party to bring debate to a halt. With overcoming the filibuster an everyday part of legislating, more members have even more power than in past years.
That could prove particularly challenging for the new GOP majority there.
Senate Republicans are trying to balance their governing responsibilities, which require cooperation from Democrats and Obama, with satisfying Republican activists’ desire for the most conservative legislation possible. That dilemma will be an occasional gut punch for House Republicans, particularly when they see conservative legislation they passed come back watered down because GOP senators balk, or fail to secure a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn conceded the challenge, but said leaders mitigate it by communicating with members, involving them in an open legislation process and carefully walking them through the policy of each bill.
“Part of it is talking to one another and making sure they understand the process,” the Texas Republican said. “But I think there seems to be a big appetite to do what we were elected to do, which is to solve problems and work together.”
