Although there will no doubt be a winner in their straw poll of Republican presidential favorites for ’08, many participants at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington March 1-3 voiced to me dissatisfaction with the current field -- all of whom except John McCain addressed the conclave of 6,000-plus conservatives at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
“I haven’t given it much thought,” Jennifer Graf, who managed the winning anti-affirmative action initiative in Michigan last November, told me when I asked her favorite for the GOP in ’08. Similarly, Diane Schachterle, who works in the office of affirmative action foe Ward Connerly in Sacramento, California, replied: “I mostly don’t like any of them.”
Nevada’s Chuck Muth, who heads the conservative group Citizen Outreach, echoed these views and told me: “I’m keeping my powder dry for now.” Birmingham (Ala.) attorney and longtime Alabama family issues leader Eric Johnston said he will “see what comes out of CPAC. A lot of candidates claim to be a conservative but I’m not sure they are.”
When pressed to name a favorite, Johnston did mention the name of Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. But, others who expressed neutrality and ambivalence about the ’08 contest came up with another name when I pressed the question to them: Newt Gingrich.”
Carolyn Meadows, former Republican National Committeewoman of Georgia and now a board member of the National Rifle Association, told me her choice at this time for ’08 was “None of the above, but that would change to Newt when and if he gets in. Another Georgian and the newly-elected chairman of the Georgia College Republicans, Esther Clark, said : “I hope Newt runs. Maybe by October, if the other major candidates keep beating each other up, he’ll decide to run. We really need a guy with ideas.” For now, Clark added, “I like McCain.”
This budding “Run, Newt, Run” sentiment extended to non-Georgians as well. When I pressed Nevada’s Muth, for example, he said “Newt is someone I really could get excited about.” Paul Caprio, a pro-family leader of Illinois whose Family PAC rates members of the state legislature, predicted: “If Newt doesn’t get into it, then [California Rep.] Duncan Hunter will emerge as a leading conservative.”
Gingrich, whose address to CPAC drew a rousing reception, has said he will make a decision on whether to run for President by September. One political consultant who has been in recent touch with the former speaker predicted he would make an announcement on whether or not to run on September 27, the 13th anniversary of the Contract With America which Republicans rode to capture of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.
