Across the Michigan mitten, there are some intense struggles between the GOP’s right and its shrinking middle.

 

There’s the ongoing feud between Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and conservatives in a county crucial to President George W. Bush’s prospects for carrying Michigan this fall.

 

In the Grand Rapids area 86th District state House primary, attorney Bob Eleveld, who was Kent County Republican chairman back when fellow moderates controlled the state party, is the only pro-choice candidate in a four-candidate field. Right to Life of Michigan has endorsed Dave Hildenbrand, a one-time aide to former-Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus.

 

But Michigan’s hottest centrist-conservative face-off is down in the middle of the lower palm of the mitt — the six-candidate primary for the 7th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Addison.

There’s some national focus on the race — a Midwest version of the recent primary in Pennsylvania where Sen. Arlen Specter narrowly won a challenge from the right by Rep. Pat Toomey.

 

The moderate Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP), which directed $250,000 in contributions to Specter, is backing ex-state Sen. Joe Schwarz of Battle Creek in the 7th. It gave him $5,000.

 

More importantly, it is paying for radio ads in which U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of St. Joseph, a voice for the dwindling band of Capitol Hill GOP moderates, touts Schwarz as a “straight shooter” who “always put policy over politics.”

 

The conservative Club for Growth, responsible for bundling $1 million to Toomey’s Pennsylvania campaign and running $400,000 in ads for him through its political action committee, backs attorney Brad Smith, son of Nick Smith, in the 7th.

 

Smith spokesman Jason Brewer Wednesday cited $150,000 as a “ballpark figure” of what the anti-tax Club for Growth has channeled to the campaign because it supports candidates “who don’t spend like Democrats.”

 

According to the July issue of Campaigns & Elections magazine, the average contribution by the group so far this year has been $400,000 per campaign, although its executive director, David Keating, expects that to go down.

 

Keating said: “I don’t think the voters cared one way or the other whether the Club for Growth endorsed a candidate. What really mattered is contributions from our supporters.”

 

That’s true as well in Michigan’s most competitive 2004 congressional race. Rare is a voter who ever heard of Club for Growth or Republican Main Street Partnership. Their names don’t ring in a GOP primary like Right to Life or the National Rifle Association.

 

Keating told me Wednesday that his group had seriously considered endorsing ex-state Rep. Tim Walberg of Tipton but felt Smith was a more viable candidate as a fund-raiser. Good call. As of June 30, Smith had out-raised Walberg, $537,179 to $165,612. According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Walberg’s total receipts were lowest among all six candidates.

 

But Keating said: “If Tim gets (the nomination) we’d be thrilled.”

 

Meanwhile, Schwarz plans next week to start airing TV ads in which Sen. John McCain touts him as “a good friend of mine and a great American. ... help President Bush by sending Joe Schwarz to Congress.”

 

The chances of that happening are enhanced by the fact that conservatives are not united behind a single conservative candidate.