GOP urges rookies to go for the dough

House GOP leaders are tired of throwing good money into lost causes on the campaign trail, so they’ve got a new message for rookie Republicans: You’re going to have to raise cash early and often.

At a closed-door GOP meeting Tuesday morning, leaders plan to unveil a new program designed to boost only those GOP candidates — which the party will call its Young Guns — who meet a series of stringent campaign benchmarks.

The idea is to put more money into “the candidates who have the best opportunity” to win, said California Rep. Kevin O. McCarthy, the architect of the program.

It remains to be seen whether this sort of tough love for new candidates will backfire and cause some GOP hopefuls to take a pass on running in 2010. But House Republicans felt burned by candidates in the 2008 election who relied heavily on national money too close to the election and then lost.

Here’s how the program will work: Campaigns will be expected to open their books to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the committee plans to grade candidates on their ability to meet the benchmarks it has set on everything from fundraising strategies to hiring campaign operatives with senior-level experience.

Top performers will get campaign checks from Republican leaders — and a helping hand in the effort to draw funds from the K Street cash machine.

And when the campaign season enters its final days, those “A” students will be the most likely to have TV ads financed by the NRCC.

But will such strict standards for rookies scare some good candidates away?

“The downside is that the NRCC needs all the challengers it can get,” said one GOP political operative who works on House races. “The reality is that there are many potential challengers whose decisions on whether or not to run pivots on the expectation of the assistance of the NRCC. It’s walking a fine line.”

The Young Guns program is part of a broader effort on the part of House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas to end what they believe is a welfare state mentality that has made House candidates too dependent on the party’s national committee.

The new program being unveiled Tuesday is aimed at having much more polished rookie recruits who can raise serious campaign donations. If it keeps some local Republicans out of congressional races, so be it, party officials say.

“This is about changing the culture within the building and the [Republican] Conference as a whole, and raising the level of accountability is a big part of that,” one NRCC source said Monday.

This new program is yet another example of House Republicans trying to learn lessons from 2006 and 2008. Early on, the NRCC threw its weight behind a handful of recruits who did not raise much money on their own in 2008, and the committee regretted it later.

In the closing days of the campaign, the NRCC spent more than $200,000 on Dean Andal, a California candidate who became the poster child for lackluster GOP House contenders.

The goal of Young Guns, aides say, is to prevent another Andal situation.

Last month, GOP leaders created similar requirements for incumbents, so even experienced Republican lawmakers won’t be able to ride the national GOP gravy train in 2010. Members are going to have to work the phones more aggressively if they want to benefit from the NRCC’s money.

“You’re going to be required to do some things. There will be some pain along the way,” Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, who’s been tasked with Republican incumbent retention for the 2010 cycle, told members in a recent presentation. “If you do not participate, you will not get help.”

The presentation left some members muttering under their breath.

“We don’t punish anybody, but we reward good behavior,” McCarthy said. “All we’re doing is raising the bar and helping you get over that bar. It’s the best of both worlds.” …

… “This is something the NRCC has never done before in this much depth,” said McCarthy.

The original Young Guns — McCarthy and Reps. Eric Cantor of Virginia and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — launched in early 2008 on their own. Now they’re being folded into the NRCC, a sign that their aggressive, unapologetic strategy has won over the national party.

The group restarted its fundraising effort during the stimulus fight this year to pay for radio ads hitting Democrats on their support for the package.

“This is Young Guns 2.0,” said McCarthy. “This is the next version of it. But it’s integrated into the NRCC plan.”
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