Morella Struggles to Hold On to Liberal Groups' Support

By Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 22, 2002; Page A01

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, the man charged with making sure Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives, buttonholed the labor leader outside the committee room. Rep. Constance A. Morella, one of the GOP's most vulnerable incumbents, had just spent several hours championing the top issue of the federal employees union. Now, Davis said, it was payback time.

"She really went to bat for you," he told Bobby L. Harnage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, that July afternoon. "The very least you ought to be able to do now is endorse her."

Harnage wouldn't commit. And within days, the Republican House leadership would strip from legislation the provisions Morella fought so hard to include. "Why should I, when you won't even back her?" Harnage recalls asking Davis (Va.).

Two months later, the federation remains a holdout; Harnage isn't about to hand the Republicans support in a key race without first winning some concessions. "In the past we've been in her corner, but her party has put us in the dilemma we're in now," he said.

The encounter underscores the fierce fight for liberal and union endorsements in Maryland's 8th District as Morella squares off against Democratic state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. in one of the most competitive House campaigns in the country.

Typically, interest groups split along fairly clear lines. Labor and environmental groups, for instance, usually go with the Democrat, while business and antiabortion groups tend to favor the Republican. But this is hardly a typical contest.

Morella, an eight-term incumbent, has a record that makes her one of the most liberal House Republicans. She has long relied on the support of liberal-leaning organizations – not just for the money and assistance their endorsements can bring but also to make the case that hers is a moderate, independent voice. In this newly drawn district in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, where voter registration numbers overwhelmingly favor Democrats, such support is more critical than ever. It offers the political equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval to the progressive voters Morella needs to cross party lines.

This year, though, the environmental, gun control, education and women's organizations that previously have lent Morella their imprimaturs are under intense pressure to defect. Nationally, Democrats have targeted her seat in their bid to wrest the GOP's majority, which hinges on six seats. Locally, many of the groups' grass-roots activists are lobbying for a Van Hollen endorsement, touting his record in the Maryland General Assembly.

"This is a competitive district, and we're going to compete for everything the voters are paying attention to," said Van Hollen's campaign manager, Steve Jost.

Morella countered: "These organizations should look at where their help has come from. There shouldn't be this scurrying. You need to have friends on both sides of the aisle. And I'm their friend, and they know it."

The race has numerous interest groups torn between the belief that a change in House leadership could advance their causes and the desire to put forth a bipartisan front. Some are using endorsements to bargain; others may sit out completely or offer the incumbent the bare minimum.

"I would say that there's some real hand-wringing going on among our activists," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, which remains uncommitted to either candidate. "It's always a difficult position when you've got an incumbent who is good on your issues and a challenger who is very good. That's the position we're in, totally aside from the question of House leadership."

Despite her precarious position, Morella has managed to hang on to a host of endorsements that she is using to appeal to crossover Democratic and independent voters. The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, spoke out strongly for her and even lent an intern. A number of women's groups continue to show their appreciation of her successful fight to enact legislation protecting the victims of domestic violence.

As Democrats left the primary polls Sept. 10, many were handed a Morella campaign brochure that asked this question: Which candidate for Congress is endorsed by the nation's leading environmental group, the nation's leading gun control advocates and the nation's leading abortion rights organizations?

Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said her organization was pushed to ditch Morella "because Democrats are within striking distance of taking the House back." But NARAL decided to help achieve that goal by defeating GOP candidates opposed to abortion rights, not by turning on Morella.

"We don't need to work against friends like Connie," she said. "We have to have pro-choice Republican leadership on the issue of a woman's right to choose. They're an endangered species."

Van Hollen's campaign has responded to such stalwart support by launching an "education effort" to let voters know how different groups come to endorse a candidate. "At the national level, you need to look at the bylaws of these organizations," Van Hollen said. "Some groups have an incumbent endorsement policy based solely on voting scorecards versus leadership scorecards."

With so much at stake, both candidates and their respective parties are applying the political thumbscrews to undecided groups.

Davis was infuriated with Harnage for holding out on an endorsement after Morella's effort to safeguard the civil service rights of tens of thousands of area federal workers who would be transferred to a proposed Department of Homeland Security. Davis suggested that groups that abandon Morella this year may find it harder to garner future party support.

"If they don't endorse Connie, the mask will be off the Lone Ranger," said Davis, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee. "This race provides a real test of how independent these groups really are, and that has real ramifications for them in terms of their clout on the Hill."

Howard Wolfson, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called Davis's comments "bluff and bluster."

"These organizations have an opportunity to support someone with a proven record on these issues, not just of voting the right way but of leadership," Wolfson said. "That changes the dynamic from what it may have been in the past."

Some groups have responded by giving Morella more tepid support than in years past. In 1998, she was a member of the League of Conservation Voters' "environmental champions" list, which brings with it money and help on the ground. This year, the league decided a simple endorsement would suffice, despite Morella's vulnerability and the fact that some who made the list earned lower grades on its scorecard.

"We believed that our endorsement was actually the highest and best gift we could give," political director Betsy Loyless said.

Part of Van Hollen's strategy is to muddle Morella's message by picking off groups with similar goals to those that have endorsed her. His campaign is wooing the Sierra Club, for one, and if NARAL's Michelman is unswayed by partisan arguments over control of the House, the club's political director, Margaret Conway, is not.

Morella often sides with environmentalists, bucking her party on such high-profile issues as oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. But Van Hollen has fought for a host of environmental laws to protect the Chesapeake Bay. Conway said her group will have to consider the records along with what she called the GOP leadership's "hostility to the environment."

"It's closer than it's ever been," she said, "and every seat can make a difference."

Van Hollen's supporters want to undercut Morella in other ways, too. After the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence endorsed her in May, its president, Michael D. Barnes, was barraged with phone calls from activists who had worked with Van Hollen to pass a state trigger-lock law. They want Barnes to issue a dual endorsement. He has yet to decide, though he says that because a dual endorsement would be so unusual it is also "unlikely."

Keeping groups out of the race can be as helpful as winning their support. Polls show that Montgomery County voters put much stock in educators' endorsements. In the past, Morella won that of the National Education Association, the parent organization of the county's largest teachers union.

But this year, the local chapter is holding out for Van Hollen, impressed by his work in Annapolis to forge a compromise that resulted in a historic increase in state aid to schools. Without agreement, there can be no endorsement, said the local union president, Mark Simon, so "looking into a crystal ball, I see a stalemate."

Not all endorsements are equal. Some are valuable for the symbolic boost they give a candidate; others mean big money and volunteers. Two days ago, Van Hollen received the state AFL-CIO's endorsement, and while organized labor may not pack the punch in Montgomery that it would in a working-class district, leaders will help him replenish his depleted campaign coffers and provide a fresh army of troops to go door-to-door and make thousands of phone calls on his behalf.

Though the AFL-CIO has never backed Morella, it has never actively targeted her for defeat. Morella's campaign manager, Tony Caligiuri, said he is not worried, pointing out that Van Hollen's chief primary opponent, state Del. Mark K. Shriver, had the organization behind him.

"They worked incredibly hard for him," Caligiuri noted, "and you tell me what that meant in the end."

Staff writer Dan Balz contributed to this report.