Posted on 09/25/2015 10:13:44 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
We told you so. That's what conservative Republican leaders in Bakersfield are saying about GOP Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy after reading media descriptions of him as a moderate on abortion and other social issues.
They say that's not the way McCarthy described himself when he ran as a conservative in last year's primary election against Bakersfield Councilman Mike Maggard.
They didn't believe McCarthy then, and they say his two faces are now being exposed.
McCarthy says they're all wet.
No matter what the media says about him, he insists he is a anti-abortion conservative on social issues and he has the voting record to prove it.
It's just that, unlike the conservatives, he says he can support GOP candidates who don't agree with him on the abortion issue.
McCarthy is attracting quite a bit of press coverage statewide these days. In September, he was elected leader-to-be of the Assembly Republican Caucus, to take over from incumbent Dave Cox of Sacramento in January.
Although Republicans are a minority in the Assembly, that is still a major leadership post within the party. It comes with a seat in top-level discussions on the state budget and the responsibility to elect more GOP Assembly members and try to take control away from the Democrats.
And it's a first for anyone elected from Kern County. McCarthy has long been a lieutenant in the local political organization headed by Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, which has fought for decades to keep social conservatives away from the reins of power in local politics. The Thomas people have also engaged in a running battle against the conservatives who dominated the California Republican Party leadership until recently.
That's why conservatives were furious when McCarthy began positioning himself to run on a conservative platform in his race for his Assembly post last year against conservative Bakersfield Councilman Mike Maggard.
McCarthy described himself as being anti-abortion in his answers on questionnaires from local and state Right to Life groups.
He said he was against abortion except in cases of incest or rape or to save the life of the mother. He also said he would vote to retain the strong anti-abortion language in the state party platform.
The latter answer was especially galling to conservatives who watched two years earlier as McCarthy and other Thomasites fought to install moderate Brooks Firestone as state party chairman. Firestone and a slate of other moderates had campaigned on a platform that called for easing the party's hardline stance against abortion and gun control. They argued it was turnoff to soccer moms and others in the crucial suburban demographic and one reason for repeated GOP setbacks in California elections.
McCarthy's answers were nearly identical to those given by Maggard, who has a solid history with the conservative movement.
In the heated battle for the GOP nomination in the heavily Republican 32nd Assembly District, the two men constantly maneuvered to try stay to the right of each other.
But Maggard couldn't get traction against the well-oiled Thomas machine and McCarthy won handily. What set the conservatives off this month, a year after the election, was a column by George Skelton in The Los Angeles Times.
"McCarthy leans to the middle," Skelton wrote after interviewing McCarthy about his new leadership post. "He supports most abortion rights, but opposes spending tax dollars on abortions."
In addition, an article in the current issue of the non-partisan political magazine, California Journal -- by this columnist -- said McCarthy is "viewed as a moderate" on social issues.
Although Maggard won't discuss it now, anti-abortion activists want to hold McCarthy's feet to the fire. "That really disturbs me," said Linda Haslow, president of the Kern chapter of Right to Life of Central California. "Yet we knew that was the truth all along. He purported to be pro-life but we knew he wasn't."
Haslow said her group and others endorsed Maggard, but they were obligated to send members and voters copies of the questionnaires which told them that McCarthy and Maggard were both with them. She said she thinks many anti-abortionists may have voted for McCarthy based on his answers to the questionnaires.
McCarthy became upset when asked about the charges that he lied in his answers on the questionnaires. He said he has always opposed abortion, with the exceptions he noted, and still does.
"In my voting record in the Assembly, I have a 100 percent pro-life voting record," he said. The difference between him and the conservatives, he said, is tolerance.
"I do not base my endorsements of people on abortion as a litmus test of whether you're a Republican or not," he said. "Apparently, they do."
He also said that as a state party member, he has voted to retain the controversial anti-abortion plank every time he has had a chance.
The conservatives' suspicions are only strengthened because McCarthy apparently made no effort to demand corrections of the articles that describe him as a moderate.
But he says there was no evidence in them that he had voted or done anything else that would violate his personal anti-abortion principles.
"Their argument doesn't fly," he said.
By this time, if you've guessed that this is an argument that will not be settled soon, you're probably right.
That's because it's another symptom of the long-running Kern County power struggle between the conservatives and the dominant Thomas group.
I don't have a direct link to the article. The text is from a pdf in my archives. You can verify it through the archives on the Bakersfield Californian site, November 15, 2003 or nl.newsbank.com
“I can support candidates who disagree with my views” is typical GOP-e blather. If a conservative can’t win a district, a “moderate Republican” can’t either.
If the establishment puts in McCarthy the conservative base’s anger will only intensify. Now is the time where the conservatives in the House make their stand and try and get a speaker with a spine and a conscience.
I’m thinking someone like Louie Gohmert would make a good speaker. Would that a freshman member like Dave Brat or a second termer like Jim Bridenstine could become speaker...
He IS a moderate Republican.
In other words, he’ll stick his finger in the wind and wait to see which way it blows.
Now that’s leadership material!
He was boehner’s right hand minion. Nothing more needs be said.
Newt Gingrich.
Isn’t mccarthy making the beast with two backs with Cong. Renee Ellmers?
I would put nothing past him to get the liberal agenda passed through Congress.
He’s a duplicitous two-faced SOB. Which is what makes McCarthy dangerous.
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