How
Popular are the Moderates This Week?
Check the Campaign Balance Sheet
By Susan
Crabtree, CQ Staff
Although their Senate
counterparts have gotten most of the
attention this week, House centrists
celebrated the influence of moderates
Wednesday as they launched a fundraising
drive to protect like-minded colleagues.
The Republican Main Street
Partnership held its first Retain Our
Majority Program (ROMP) fundraiser to
collect for four of its most vulnerable
members: Charlie Dent and Jim Gerlach of
Pennsylvania, Joe Schwarz of Michigan and
Rob Simmons of Connecticut.
Mark Steven Kirk of
Illinois, chairman of the House Main Street
Partnership, said the event would produce
$25,000 for each of the four.
“We’re trying to turn
these legislative victories into political
victories,” Kirk said. “It’s about moderates
helping moderates.”
The ROMP acronym is
well-known among House Republicans. The
moderates are mimicking a National
Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC)
program with the same name. The brainchild
of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the
leadership’s ROMP is designed to provide
roughly $150,000 in early money for each of
the 10 most vulnerable House Republicans.
Last year, Tom Cole of
Oklahoma launched the Freshmen Retain Our
Majority Program (FROMP), which specifically
aims to collect cash for five of the GOP
conference’s newest and most endangered
members. Cole is considered a prime prospect
to head the NRCC when the current chairman,
Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, steps down
after the 2006 elections.
Gerlach, who won his last two
elections by fewer than 3 percentage points,
benefited from FROMP last year. He is also
on this year’s NRCC ROMP list, and is
grateful that moderates have launched their
own incumbent-retention program.
“I’m really appreciative of
all of the efforts,” he said.
