Congresswoman Shelley Capito of West Virginia plans to run in 2014 for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, but Club for Growth President Chris Chocola has said Capito is one Republican his group won’t support.
“On Shelley Capito, our point was bigger than her or her race,” Chocola tells Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview.
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“Our point was that there is a lot of handwringing that the Republicans ought to reinstate the smoke-filled room and party bosses ought to pick the nominees and not have contested primaries. The voters matter. You ought to have pro-growth choice in every race.
“The problem is that the Republican establishment always reverts back to the standard of electability. They really should focus on the standard of principle. And when you look at people like Rick Berg in North Dakota, Denny Rehberg in Montana, Heather Wilson in New Mexico, they were all establishment choices, they were all ‘moderate Republicans,’ and they all lost.
“Our point was that Shelley Capito looks a lot more like those types of candidates than she looks like Jeff Flake in Arizona, who won, and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, in a blue state, who won in 2010.
“Toomey has stood his entire career unapologetically for a clear, concise, convincing conservative message. Marco Rubio in Florida, a purple state, makes no bones about his willingness to stand up for conservative principles.
“So the party really ought to learn the lesson of 2012 — when you have candidates that will stand convincingly for conservative economic issues, they can win anywhere. And when you have candidates that run away from reforms like Denny Rehberg did in Montana, they can lose even in Montana. So the standard of principle is much more important than the standard of electability because without principle you can’t really have electability.”
Chocola adds that it is “way too early” to say what Senate races the Club for Growth plans to focus on in 2014.
“You’re going to have to have candidates like Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake, people that will stand and deliver the economic message, because 70 percent of Americans believe in economic responsibility, personal responsibility, limited government, and fiscal responsibility.
“If you have candidates that can articulate that, who won’t apologize for that, they can win anywhere.”
See more from our exclusive interview with Chris Chocola: