The election is still more than five weeks off, but that hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from jockeying for leadership positions once it’s over.
First in line: Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, who has declared his candidacy for the chairmanship of the National Republican Congressional Committee, despite the fact that the current chairman, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, may want to stay on the job.
House Republicans and staffers were taken aback this week by rumors that Sessions was convening a formal meeting of his top surrogates to plot his NRCC campaign. The rumors were false, Sessions insists, but he acknowledged that the time for such a session will come.
“I’m not focused on [the NRCC race],” Sessions said on Wednesday. “I’m not out doing anything for that. I’m not having formal meetings with members. I’m not making calls.”
Instead, Sessions said he’s been meeting with his colleagues around the clock to raise money for the Battleground Program, a biennial fundraising drive to help GOP candidates in the tightest races down the stretch.
Ironically, if that program succeeds — if a lot of GOP candidates win in November — Cole is much more likely to want to stay on at the NRCC, and Sessions is less likely to deny him that wish.
“If it’s a bad night, they’re all gone,” one GOP strategist said of the party’s leaders. “But if it’s not a bad night and [Cole] feels like they’ve done everything they could, I think he’s going to run.”
“He’s a competitive guy,” the strategist said. “He wants to see what he can do in a better environment.”
The Sessions rumor came shortly after he made it clear he was interested in making another run for the NRCC post that he lost to Cole the last time around.
“If there’s the will of the [Republican] Conference, I’ll be pleased to do that,” Sessions told a reporter from PolitickerTX.com during an interview at the Capitol Hill Club. “I believe it would be a fun thing to do, and I’d enjoy it very much.”
But Sessions was adamant Wednesday that he is not reaching out to colleagues to secure support.
“That would be a mistake,” he said. “I feel like it would be counterproductive. … It’s all about Battleground now.”
Among members, it’s frowned upon to run for a post — particularly that of a campaign chairman — before the election if the current occupant wants to keep it.
Instead, lawmakers are expected to lay the foundation quietly, gathering their colleagues’ phone numbers and recruiting a small band to help out, so they can pounce once the results are in.
Sessions suggested that those who spread rumors about his alleged early organizing were only trying to stir up trouble.
“People who talk about the parlor game are trying to create a scenario that this is a charade,” Sessions said. “But it is not. It’s a serious business.”
Cole has been coy about his plans for another two-year term at the party’s campaign committee.
His first term hasn’t exactly been a joy ride.
The fundraising environment has been terrible since Democrats bounced the GOP from power in 2006. Twenty-nine Republicans have announced their retirement, expanding the field of competitive races beyond what is manageable for the cash-strapped party. And a financial accounting forced Cole to spend precious funds on an internal audit that attracted more negative publicity to the NRCC.
The former campaign consultant also clashed with Republican leader John A. Boehner of Ohio in an episode that briefly roiled the party. And he drew fire from colleagues for his decision not to involve the NRCC in primary battles, particularly during a string of three special elections in which Republicans lost seats they once held because, in part, a weaker candidate emerged from intraparty fights.
Cole beat Sessions in a tight three-way battle in 2006. Pennsylvania Rep. Phil English was the third candidate. The Oklahoma Republican beat his Texan rival by a vote of 102-81 on the second ballot.
Despite that loss, Sessions has been an active fundraiser for the NRCC in the intervening period — all while laying the foundation for another bid to chair the campaign committee.
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