Club For Growth Not Thrilled With Florida Field
Sorry, Florida Republicans: Club for Growth President Chris Chocola doesn't see anyone of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., quality among the current crop of contenders vying for the right to face Sen. Bill Nelson next year.
"There's nobody there right now that we think is at the Rubio level," he said in an interview with Hotline On Call. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner has tried to highlight his ties to Rubio and has been striving for conservative support. But Chocola may be more interested in Rep. Allen West; he said the Club would talk to the freshman Congressman if West decided to make the race.
But don't count on the Club getting involved if the candidate isn't right. "You have to have a candidate like a Rubio that warrants making that decision. We don't see anyone that's to the Rubio-caliber candidate," Chocola said.
Instead, the Club may turn their focus to Indiana and Utah, where Sens. Richard Lugar and Orrin Hatch want another term. The Club isn't enamored of either incumbent.
The group hasn't endorsed Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, but Chocola said they were still in the "educational phase." He noted that Tea Party groups in Indiana were trying to organize behind one candidate.
The Club has publicly encouraged Rep. Jason Chaffetz to challenge Hatch. "Some people say we should we happy because Orrin Hatch is now voting to the right of Jim DeMint," said Chocola. But what matters, he maintained, is not what Hatch is doing today, but what he's been doing for 35 years, and most importantly, what he'll do for the next six years. He called Hatch's recent behavior a "survival instinct," and said they weren't convinced that Hatch, if reelected, would continue on his recent path.
Lugar "looks a lot like [former Sen. Bob] Bennett," the Utah Republican who lost to now-Sen. Mike Lee in 2010. In comparison, "Hatch, to his credit, has taken this very seriously," Chocola said. "He has worked very hard to save his job. And I have respect for that. I think that he does not take anything for granted. I'm not convinced it's sincere and genuine, but I do think he has worked hard to try to save his job."
But the Club isn't just getting involved in a primary for the sake of getting involved. That's good news for Sen. Olympia Snowe, who faces re-election in a much more moderate state than either Lugar or Hatch. "We don't see a better alternative [to Snowe] right now, and Maine is not Utah," Chocola said. He said the state is lower on their list of priorities.
But Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D., may be next on the hot seat. The Club has already gone after the freshman Republican, who is seeking to replace retiring Democrat Kent Conrad. When asked if there was anyone they hoped would enter the race, he noted that Duane Sand, who has previously run unsuccessfully for statewide office 3 times and is already in the race, was "pretty good on our issues." He also brought up North Dakota Treasurer Kelly Schmidt, someone who has not been mentioned frequently, as a potential candidate.
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