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Martin Gottlieb: Righter-than-right forces tug at local Republicans

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10:52 AM Thursday, July 2, 2009

If you were to judge by the headlines in Butler and Warren counties in this no-big-elections year, you might get the sense the real action in politics these days is on the political right.

The hard right. The righter-than-right right.

If, on the other hand, you have followed the national media all year, you know there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about whether the conservative movement has lost appeal beyond the Republican base and whether the party must move toward the center.

When some political people talk about the party’s base, they use the phrase “Southern, white males.” They’re exaggerating for effect, of course. Still, they might add the exurban Northerners, the people who live beyond the suburbs that surround a big city. John McCain beat Barack Obama by well over 2-1 in Warren County and by about 5-3 in Butler.

Conservative Republican incumbents worry more about challenges from more conservative Republicans than from Democrats.

The highest-profile political figure in Butler County, Sheriff Richard Jones, has considered a run for Congress. He took out papers for 2010, but eventually decided against running.

Now the highest-profile political figure in Warren County, Commissioner Michael Kilburn, is reported to be considering a run.

The adjacent counties are in different districts. Sheriff Jones would have been running against fellow Republican John Boehner, the incumbent, of West Chester. That’s the 8th District, which goes up the Indiana border from Butler, curls over Montgomery County and dips back down into Huber Heights and east Dayton.

Kilburn would be running against fellow Republican Jean Schmidt, another incumbent, of Loveland, outside Cincinnati. Her 2nd District mainly sprawls eastward from Cincinnati but also reaches up into Lebanon.

Both Kilburn and Jones have become visible by pushing — or pulling from the right — on national issues, despite holding county office.

For the sheriff, the issue has been illegal immigration, which he rails — and acts — against, winning favor from right-wing media outlets.

His activism predates this year. However, the talk of a congressional run surfaced this year, as conservative anger mounted about the general Obama direction.

For Kilburn, the big issue is federal spending. He got national attention for saying he’d let his county go broke before taking Obama’s “filthy” stimulus money.

Says fellow Warren County commissioner, Pat South, a Republican, about Kilburn, “I’m glad to see he is considering a run for Congress, where he can work to be part of the solution, rather than continuing to tear our commission meetings apart with his tirades.” Quite an endorsement.

Both of Kilburn’s fellow Republican commissioners show some pragmatic moderation. They agreed with him in rejecting one pot of stimulus money, but are accepting others.

Says Commissioner Dave Young, “I hate it. We wanted to give it back, but they won’t let us... If I turn the money aside, and it goes to Ashtabula County or whatever, I and 207,000 Warren County residents are still paying for it.”

Undoubtedly, though, Kilburn has received much positive feedback about his uncompromising position. The anti-stimulus, anti-Obama people include a passionate hard core that is all about being heard.

These high-profile uprisings are some sort of sign of the polarized times. After all, Boehner and Schmidt are seriously conservative. Move any farther to the right and you’re on talk radio.

Yet both have strayed from ideological purity. They voted for President George W. Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry.

Boehner has never been seriously challenged by a Democrat. Schmidt, widely seen as a weak candidate, has been, but seems to have survived her roughest years.

She has many Republican critics, but few are likely to see Kilburn as a stronger candidate, given that some voters who are open to his views might not like the “filthy” talk.

One might argue that the Jones and Kilburn stories should not be taken seriously. In the end, both “candidacies” might prove to have been fleeting and weak.

Still, for the moment, the report from southwestern Ohio is that the Republican move to the center is invisible.

Contact Martin Gottlieb at (937) 225-2288 or by e-mail at mgottlieb@DaytonDaily News.com.

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You people that think Americans have moved towards the liberals because we like their views are dead wrong,most of the votes that put obama and the democrats in power were republicans and independants that hated george bush who was by most means not a true conservative,and ran another repub that was a moderate (mccain) and no one wanted another george w. in office.Really you liberals over estimate yourselves,enjoy it while you can.

fedup
10:05 PM, 7/3/2009

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