The Politico: Retirements push GOP to the right
By: Josh Kraushaar and Martin Kady II
Nov 19, 2007
The unexpected retirement of Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) marks the latest in an exodus of moderate Republicans that is pushing the caucus in a rightward direction and could potentially cripple the party’s chances of winning back seats in swing districts next year. Of the 17 Republican House members to announce their retirements this year — Ferguson joined the club on Monday — eight have built reputations on Capitol Hill as centrists willing to work with Democrats to get legislation passed. Political observers warn that those are exactly the type of candidates the GOP needs to regain its congressional majority.
“It should be an area of deep concern to Republicans of all stripes. Once you lose the vital center, then you begin to lose the claim that you are the majority party,” said former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a moderate Republican who retired in 2006. He said that in more than four decades in political life, he’s never seen “a higher degree of partisanship or a higher level of intolerance for another point of view.”
Most of the moderates who have decided to leave Congress have won their districts comfortably, even in last year’s Democratic wave. Their reasons for leaving range from wanting to spend more time with family — Ferguson’s explanation — to a simple desire to do something else. But each also faced a growing ascendancy of conservatives in both the House and Senate GOP caucus as well as a national environment that would seem to favor Democrats....
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In 2006, moderate House Republicans took the brunt of the Democratic congressional landslide. Former GOP Reps. Nancy Johnson (Conn.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), and Charlie Bass (N.H.) all were ousted by Democratic challengers....
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With all the seats now open, Democrats are making a concerted push to win over districts that they view as newly winnable — as well as trumpeting to moderate voters that these retirements show that the GOP is lurching rightward....
On the Senate side, the majority of the retirements come from longtime members who maintained independent credentials. Three of the five retiring Republican senators— John Warner (Va.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Pete V. Domenici (N.M.) — have publicly split with the Bush administration on key issues, most notably the Iraq war. Both Warner and Domenici are leaving behind seats that the Democrats are aggressively contesting and have solid chances of winning....
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/6987.html
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