Jim Hartman, the California Republican Party's Bay Area Vice Chair, was apparently not content with his 15 seconds of fame from being quoted in Debra Saunder's Feb. 8 column attacking the California Club for Growth. In a Feb. 12 letter to the editor, he fired off a second volley at our noble organization:
No GOP fratricide
Editor -- Debra J. Saunders' column, "A club too exclusive" (Feb. 8), insightfully looked behind the Club for Growth's appealing promotion of pro- growth, supply-side economics and examined the subtext.
Republicans currently hold 232 House seats and 55 in the Senate. According to its Web site, the Club for Growth approves of "at most" 50 members in the House and "roughly" 15 in the Senate "who are truly dedicated to prosperity and limited government."
As a result, a large majority of Republican members of Congress may be subject to "purging" through primary challenges by club-backed candidates.
Republican support organizations would be most helpful focused on re- electing GOP incumbents and targeting vulnerable Democrats rather than engaged in internal-party fratricide campaigns.
JIM HARTMAN
Vice chairman
California Republican Party
Bay Area Region
Berkeley
Jim, Jim, Jim. The California Club for Growth is not a "Republican support organization." We are a non-partisan organization dedicated to supporting candidacies and causes that embrace lower taxes and reduced government spending as bedrock principles of governance. We were unaware fighting for those basic principles is considered "internal party fratricide" -- at least according to CRP Bay Area Vice Chair Jim Hartman.
The Club usually supports Republican candidates in general elections because they are usually much more imbued with the spirit of economic liberty than their Democratic opponents. At the same time, the Club has not and will not shrink from supporting GOP (or Democratic, for that matter) primary candidates who are willing to fight for economic liberty. The Club is not a Republican organization, after all, and not constrained from endorsing in primaries.
Jim Hartman asserts that because the Club does not consider most Republican Senators and Congressmen as "truly dedicated to prosperity and limited government," then the Club may ipso facto mount primary challenges against all of them. That is just illogical, and flies in the face of common sense and experience.
Although the Club is not afraid to support a challenge against RINO incumbents, neither does it seek incumbents to challenge. Our goal is to elect more legislators who share Ronald Reagan's supply-side vision -- a goal not furthered by willy-nilly going after incumbents.
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