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 "The Republican establishment has lost confidence in Justin," said
Mark Bissell, chief executive of vacuum manufacturer Bissell Inc.
"We're sort of feeling like we're not represented, because he is so
far out there," lamented small businessman Dan Bogo.
The venue was a fundraiser last month for Amash's Republican primary
opponent, Brian Ellis, the head of an investment firm who bills
himself as "West Michigan Nice" for his collaborative style.
The contest in Michigan's third district, for a congressional seat
once held by President Gerald Ford, is emblematic of the nationwide
struggle between the five-year-old Tea Party and more traditional
Republicans who believe conservative upstarts like Amash have gone
too far.
When the Tea Party movement for smaller government helped usher in
Republican control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term
elections in 2010, many in the party's so-called "establishment"
welcomed the grassroots energy that the movement inspired.
Amash, a lawyer and son of a wealthy Palestinian immigrant, was part
of the wave of conservative House lawmakers elected that year. Back
then, Bissell supported him.
But after a series of messy confrontations in Congress, including
market-rattling showdowns over the debt limit and last year's 16-day
U.S. government shutdown, many in the party establishment, including
some of the Grand Rapids Republicans, decided they have had enough
of the upstarts.
This has led to a widening rift between the Tea Party and the
establishment, and the tensions are shaping up as a major theme of
the 2014 congressional elections.
THE "NO CAUCUS"
The 33-year-old Amash is part of a rebel group of House
conservatives known as the "No Caucus" for their resistance to
compromise.
Last year, Republican Senator John McCain described Amash as a
"wacko bird," along with Tea Party stars Senator Ted Cruz and
Senator Rand Paul.
Running against Amash, Ellis, owner of Brooktree Capital Management,
is 20 years older than the congressman. A former school board
chairman, Ellis touts himself as a "true conservative" in the mold
of Gerald Ford.
"Ask yourself: does this represent you? Is this what we want?" Ellis
said of Amash at the Grand Rapids fundraiser.
Though the establishment versus Tea Party struggle is a feature of
several other congressional races, the battle to win the August 5
primary contest in Michigan is also a rare case of an establishment
candidate trying to oust a Tea Party incumbent. In contrast, several
races that have grabbed national attention lately involve
establishment incumbents trying to fend off Tea Party challengers.
Establishment Republicans are often reluctant to take on Tea Party
incumbents "because they know they can't win, in most cases," said
David Wasserman, who analyzes House races for the Cook Political
Report. "They know that in a Republican primary there is not a lot
of oxygen on the left of these incumbents."
In one of the most high-profile Senate races this year, Tea Party
candidate Matt Bevin is running against Republican Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell in the May 20 Kentucky primary.
Though polls show Bevin far behind McConnell, the primary fight
could weaken McConnell as he prepares to face Democrat Alison
Lundergan Grimes in the November general election.
In Idaho, Congressman Mike Simpson, an eight-term incumbent and
close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, is trying to fight off a
challenge from Tea Party-backed Bryan Smith.
Smith is supported by the conservative Club for Growth, while
Simpson is backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Main Street
Partnership, a moderate Republican group that launched a fundraising
arm last year to fight Tea Party influence.
FUNDING THE MICHIGAN CONTEST
So far, both the Chamber of Commerce and the Main Street Partnership
are staying out of the Grand Rapids congressional race.
But the Main Street Partnership has met with Ellis and has not ruled
out entering the fray on his behalf, even though doing so would
break with the group's practice so far, said Sarah Chamberlain, the
group's chief operating officer. The group has helped Republican
incumbents resist Tea Party challengers, but has not spent money to
challenge a sitting member of Congress.
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As with most attempts to unseat an incumbent, Ellis' bid to oust
Amash is a long-shot. A poll by Maryland-based Basswood Research
last month gave Amash a huge lead, 60 percent to 12 percent. But a
survey commissioned by the Ellis campaign says voters support Ellis
by 52 percent to 33 percent once they learn details of Amash's
voting record.
On the other hand, deep-pocketed conservative groups that like
Amash, such as Americans for Prosperity and the Club for Growth,
appear to regard the Ellis challenge seriously enough that they are
pouring money into the race on behalf of Amash. Americans for
Prosperity, founded by the billionaire brothers David and Charles
Koch, has spent about $165,000 on television ads praising Amash for
opposing Obamacare, a spokesman said.
President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform, which passed in
2010 and seeks to extend health insurance to millions more
Americans, helped to ignite the Tea Party movement in elections that
year. Opponents of the law decry what they view as government
overreach.
The Club for Growth says it has spent about $200,000 on a TV and
radio ad campaign criticizing Ellis' school board record, accusing
him of backing tax increases.
Some of the Tea Party's biggest luminaries, including Senators Ted
Cruz and Rand Paul, are getting involved. Political action
committees for both senators have donated to Amash's campaign.
Amash raised $518,000 in the fourth quarter of last year after
libertarian Ron Paul, Rand Paul's father, urged allies to donate to
Amash.
Ellis, who announced his candidacy in October, raised $308,000 for
his campaign in the fourth quarter of last year and loaned himself
another $200,000.
VOTING RECORD
Ellis has labeled Amash's votes "bizarre," citing his opposition to
the fiscally austere budget proposed by House Budget Committee
Chairman Paul Ryan. He also pointed to Amash's vote of "present,"
instead of "yes," on a bill concerning the proposed Keystone oil
pipeline.
Amash, however, says a realignment is under way in his party and
that old guard establishment Republicans are becoming a fringe group
that doesn't represent "what ordinary Republicans think."
He is proud of his votes and explains them on Facebook. His stance
on the Keystone bill, for example, stemmed from an aversion to
Congress giving special regulatory preferences to TransCanada, the
Canadian company that wants to build the pipeline. Amash says he
supports the pipeline's construction.
Amash denies he is hostile to compromise, but says many of the
proposed bipartisan deals in Washington offer temporary fixes,
rather than long-term solutions.
"I think unfortunately Washington has twisted the meaning of the
word compromise, where compromise has come to mean passing phony
deals that don't do anything to improve our situation," Amash said.
Bill Ballenger, the associate editor of Inside Michigan Politics,
believes Amash's credibility has been bolstered by Edward Snowden's
revelations about government surveillance programs.
Amash had focused on the issue before Snowden, a former security
contractor, leaked a raft of secret documents on surveillance last
year. "All of a sudden people are saying, 'Maybe he's been onto
something here,'" Ballenger said.
Nonetheless, he said many locals are still not used to Amash's
style. Gerald Ford "was the quintessential mainstream establishment
Republican. That's what people are used to ... Amash is a hothouse
flower."
(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti;
editing by Caren Bohan
and Frances Kerry)
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