Political legacy versus tea party insurgency

With the tea party faction of the Republican caucus taking its first major post-shutdown hits in Tuesday’s elections, a grudge match in select states and districts for the party’s soul looks increasingly likely in 2014. That fight may be put to the ultimate test in Pennsylvania’s 9^th congressional district.

American elections historically favor incumbency and legacy by a wide margin, both of which Pennsylvania Republican Rep. William “Bill” Shuster has ample amounts. The seven-term congressman directly continues the legacy and occupies the seat held by his father Bud Shuster from 1973 to 2001.

Highways and byways through Pennsylvania’s 9^th district sport the congressmen’s name in honor of the senior Shuster, who chaired the House Transportation Committee and became well-known securing millions in infrastructure projects for his district.

The major exception to the rules of incumbency, legacy and name recognition are crisis events and their popular media narratives – cross-government responses that incite the anger of the public with the majority in power at the time.

Public anger like that incited by the economic bailouts and partisan policy passage of Obamacare by Democrats in the first half of the Obama administration’s first term.

A torpedoed economy, burgeoning unemployment and resulting recession fueled a public backlash with “establishment” Washington that ushered a hostile takeover of both the House of Representatives and the Republican Party in the 2010 midterm elections. The tea party grassroots movement of Washington “outsiders” promised change no matter the cost.

Americans may now be deciding that cost is more than they can afford to pay. The recent tea-party-led government shutdown pushed the nation to the brink of default, cost the economy billions, and Republicans even more in terms of public support, as evidenced in Tuesday’s elections that handed major defeats to tea-party candidates in Virginia and Alabama.

Another of the primary battles in the 2014 war for the Republican Party will test the Shuster legacy against tea-party insurgent Art Halverson, who sports the popular party narrative of drastically cutting spending.

The 58-year-old retired Coast Guard captain has aligned himself with the core conservative bloc condemning Shuster for voting along with House Speaker John Boehner to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling – moves that fueled the tea-party fire against establishment Republican House members across the country.

“If he is a conservative, he’s not a very good one,” Halverson said in Politico Thursday. “He goes along to get along. He has no conservative agenda. He’s just doing what the big boys tell him to do.”

But as an increasing number of polls, including the one giving Shuster a 52-point lead over Halverson, are demonstrating that same fire threatens to burn Halverson’s campaign bid.

The money the elder Shuster became so adept at securing for Pennsylvania’s 9^th came largely through the practice of earmarking bills with federally funded addendums sending money to districts – typically one involved with drafting or sponsoring the legislation. In Shuster’s case, that meant transportation and infrastructure – hence the roads sporting the family name.

After the House takeover in 2010, tea party Republicans ended the practice of earmarking bills in the House as part of their quest to reduce spending – a move that has increasingly served to alienate pro-business candidates and campaign donors that took tea party seats in 2012, and threaten to take more in 2014.

The junior Shuster took over his father’s former committee chairmanship at the beginning of 2013, and stands poised to continue his father’s legislative legacy with big project approvals like the $8 billion Water Resources Reform and Development Act he unveiled in September – much to the chagrin of far-right conservative organizations.

The fight for Pennsylvania’s 9^th district will be a likely indicator of both the strength and future of the tea party – or lack thereof – in the 2014 midterm battle for a Republican Party in flux, ready to test the tried weapons of incumbency and legacy against insurgency.

Related articles

• Republican All About Building Roads Incurs Tea Party Ire (bloomberg.com)
• Veteran Pennsylvania Congressman Can’t Escape GOP Civil War (npr.org)
• Shutdown fuels GOP primaries (politico.com)