Retirements push GOP to the rightBy: Josh Kraushaar and Martin Kady II
Nov 19, 2007 07:30 PM ESTThe unexpected retirement of Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) marks the latest in an exodus of moderate Republicans that is pushing the caucus in a rightward direction and could potentially cripple the party’s chances of winning back seats in swing districts next year.
Of the 17 Republican House members to announce their retirements this year — Ferguson joined the club on Monday — eight have built reputations on Capitol Hill as centrists willing to work with Democrats to get legislation passed. Political observers warn that those are exactly the type of candidates the GOP needs to regain its congressional majority.
“It should be an area of deep concern to Republicans of all stripes. Once you lose the vital center, then you begin to lose the claim that you are the majority party,” said former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a moderate Republican who retired in 2006.
He said that in more than four decades in political life, he’s never seen “a higher degree of partisanship or a higher level of intolerance for another point of view.”
Most of the moderates who have decided to leave Congress have won their districts comfortably, even in last year’s Democratic wave. Their reasons for leaving range from wanting to spend more time with family — Ferguson’s explanation — to a simple desire to do something else.
But each also faced a growing ascendancy of conservatives in both the House and Senate GOP caucus as well as a national environment that would seem to favor Democrats.
“It’s not a good time to be a moderate in American politics,” said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.). “Ask Joe Lieberman.”
“The money has moved away from the parties, who used to be the enforcement mechanisms, to groups on the extreme right and left, and it’s killing us,” Davis said.
Davis said moderates were increasingly frustrated about their ability to make a difference in the current partisan age. “And they have to fight even harder to hold onto these seats,” he said.
In 2006, moderate House Republicans took the brunt of the Democratic congressional landslide. Former GOP Reps. Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), and Charlie Bass (N.H.) all were ousted by Democratic challengers.
