Tom Davis and the 'Dying Breed' of Moderates
Last September, when centrist Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) announced his plans to retire, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) was asked why so many of his fellow moderate Republicans seemed to be heading for the exits.
"I think some of them are just tired," Davis told Roll Call, adding that the coming months would be a "test of leadership" to see whether the GOP could convince the remaining centrists to stick around.
Well, Davis isn't. After having foregone a Senate race, the Fairfax lawmaker is announcing today that he won't be running for re-election after 14 years in the House.
"We're just very tired," Davis said today of himself and his wife. "We're going to kick back and have some weekends."
Davis is probably best-known among House Republicans for his two successful terms running the party's campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and for his Rain Man-like knowledge of seemingly every state and district in the country.
As one senior Republican lawmaker lamented Tuesday, "We're losing our encyclopedia."
But the House GOP is also losing something else - a relatively rare moderate success story. Davis was able to serve in leadership with distinction and ascend to a committee chairmanship, all the while holding an increasingly marginal suburban district with relative ease.
When Ramstad announced his retirement in September, he said he was part of a "dying breed of Republican moderates," and things have gotten a lot worse since then. Davis is now the 21st House Republican to announce his retirement this cycle (not counting House members who are leaving to run for other office), and moderates make up a full 48 percent of that list.
Using membership in the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership as a guide, Davis is the 10th self-identified GOP moderate to call it quits, following Reps. David Hobson (Ohio), Ray LaHood (Ill.), Jim McCrery (La.), Deborah Pryce (Ohio), Ramstad, Ralph Regula (Ohio), Jim Saxton (N.J.), Jim Walsh (N.Y.) and Jerry Weller (Ill.). (An 11th RMSP member, New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson, is running for Senate.)
To put that 48 percent number in perspective, RMSP members make up only about 20 percent of the House Republican Conference.
And this isn't the first cycle to decimate the moderate Republican ranks. In 2006, the GOP was unable to protect two New Hampshire centrists -- Jeb Bradley and Charles Bass (now the RMSP's president) -- as well as Reps. Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), and Gil Gutknecht (Minn.). Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (N.Y.) chose to retire.
What's behind the exodus of centrists? Part of it can be explained by the pressures of constant campaigning. Most moderate Republicans reside in swing districts, so they have to raise money constantly and fight to stay alive every two years. The decennial redistricting process often results in the dismemberment of these kinds of districts, so some centrists could find themselves running in unfamiliar territory in 2012. And they regularly encounter primary challenges from conservatives, sometimes backed by well-funded groups like the Club for Growth.
But disillusionment in the moderate GOP ranks goes beyond their re-election worries. Since the party took power in 1994, the House Republican Conference has been dominated by conservatives. Many centrists believe there is a glass ceiling for them within the party, and that their leaders too often push them into taking tough votes.
In Davis' case, there was little chance of him ascending to another leadership post after he ran the NRCC, even if he had wanted to, because many conservatives were wary of his moderate or liberal stands on social issues. And Davis had to fight to be named chairman in 2003 of what was then known as the Government Reform Committee, because some conservatives -- led by then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his allies -- believed Davis was too pro-union to run the panel that oversees the federal workforce.
In Virginia, Davis decided not to run for the seat of retiring Sen. John Warner (R) last October when state Republicans chose to pick their nominee with a convention rather than a primary. Because conventions attract the most committed party activists, they naturally favor conservatives over moderates.
Now Davis' House seat could be in jeopardy, as the Northern Virginia suburbs have been trending to the left and several Democratic candidates, including Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly, appear poised to jump in the race.
With his party in the minority, little room for advancement in the House, his seat getting tougher and the deck stacked against him for a Senate run, there was little reason for Davis to stick around for an 8th term. In the end, like his fellow retiring centrists, he was just tired.
By Ben Pershing |
January 30, 2008; 1:20 PM ET
2008 Campaign
, GOP Leaders
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Posted by: spidey103 | January 30, 2008 1:50 PM
Bad news for Republicans. The Christian Soldiers have had their way for too long in the GOP. This country needs moderates from both parties in charge. Instead, DeLay and company forced the Republicans into a tight straightjacket that didn't allow them to breathe. Holy wars aren't good for anybody except those who profit from them, no matter what part of the world you live in.
Posted by: Center Channel | January 30, 2008 2:04 PM
Tom has served Fairfax County well and I am sorry to see him go but I do not blame him one bit. I have watched his career from when he first campaigned for Supervisor of Mason District and rise to be Chairman. He bumped a friend, Leslie Byrne out of office and that was ok with me though she did try to do a good job. Our prooblem here in VA is the Democratic party undermining his every move and in the end forced his move by not allowing the proper and well earned advancement to the Senate which he richly deserved. May the Lord save us from this party. They are just downright nasty.
Posted by: Joanie | January 30, 2008 4:36 PM
Joanie, cut the religious nonsense. The reason he won't be in the Senate is because the former Governor is going to wipe the floor with any Republican that would run against him. The Republican brand is seriously damaged because there are people who invoke the Lord's name in every sentence. Bye bye Republicans, you won't be missed.
Posted by: VA resident | January 30, 2008 5:03 PM
Wow, how wrong could this be? Tom DeLay didn't inhibit Davis from getting to be Reform Chair because Davis was a moderate. The guy up for the job based on seniority was Chris Shays - a real moderate who pushed for campaign finance reform. Republicans in power didn't want anyone messing with their meal ticket - least of all Tom Davis, who funnels money through his wife's "consulting" job and her campaigns. Tom "the Hammer" DeLay LOANED DAVIS HELP and staff, in the name of Scott Hatch to "Hammer" people into letting Davis take the job, and then he and Davis went around the country threatening Republicans with withholding their funding unless they supported DeLay and Bush.
http://www.thecre.com/pdf/TheFederalPaper_111802.pdf
I think you are getting your revised facts from Tom Davis himself. Maybe you should read Congressional Quarterly or the Hill.
Actually according to the Post on Nov 19, 1998: "Davis, a 49-year-old Vienna resident who represents Fairfax and Prince William counties, allied himself with new House Speaker Bob Livingston (R-La.) and Majority Whip TOM DeLAY (R-Tex.) and quickly established himself ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/leadership/stories/davis111998.htm
After Davis became NRCC Chair, he used DeLay's staffer Scott Hatch to help steal support from Shays for the Reform Committee Chair, although the fact that it was done with threats of withholding campaign funds of the voting Republicans, if they voted for Shays, may have come out later.
In fact, Davis and DeLay worked so well together that the two created three subsidiaries of the NRCC that they said were not required to obey campaign finance laws. The outside organizations named in an FCC complaint -- the US Family Network (a sweatshop in the Marianas Islands), the Republican Majority Issues Committee and Americans for Economic Growth -- are all associated with DeLay's and Davis' political operations. None of the groups disclosed their donors. The NRCC under Davis gave $500,000 to the sweatshop before the 1999 elections, the largest single donation the committee has made that year, and didn't have to pay the fines until after the Republicans gained control of the House.
According to Tom DeLay, the idea to subpoena Teri Schiavo was one they cooked up together to require feeding tubes to be reinserted despite the Florida Court's finding that she would not have wanted such extreme measures to prolong her life.
Public Citizen and CapitalEye both have found financial ties from Davis, DeLay, and Jack Abramoff, especially through super-lobbyist Dan Mattoon, but Davis has somehow escaped scrutiny and has never been held accountable. Certainly not by this paper.
Posted by: achamblee | February 4, 2008 2:52 PM
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I guess by current standards Davis is considered a "moderate" Republican, but he voted to impeach President Clinton and always seemed to go along with whatever Bush wanted.