Republicans Use Pelosi as a Campaign Weapon

Facing a strong reelection challenge from Democrat Heath Shuler, veteran Republican Rep. Charles Taylor is going after a candidate who gets an F from the National Rifle Assn. and a perfect score from a leading abortion rights group.

But that’s not Shuler, a former NFL quarterback who hopes his pro-gun and anti-abortion positions appeal to swing voters and social conservatives alike in this mountainous district in western North Carolina.

Instead, Taylor’s target this summer is House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has emerged as a “boogey-woman” of sorts for Republicans campaigning on the idea that Democrats can’t be trusted with control of the House.

“Rookie Heath Shuler is following the playbook of San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi,” an announcer intones as the noise of a stadium crowd and marching band plays in the background of a 60-second Taylor radio spot. “The Pelosi game plan: Elect Heath Shuler and others like him and take over Congress with the votes of illegal immigrants.”

But rural North Carolina isn’t the only place Republicans want to make the specter of a Democratic House a key campaign issue.

* In South Carolina’s 5th District, state Rep. Ralph Norman is challenging 12-term Democratic incumbent John Spratt and has repeatedly linked Spratt to Pelosi, saying voters should elect Norman if they want the GOP to maintain control of the House.

* Before announcing in April that he would leave Congress, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, then of Texas, criticized the Democrat lined up to run against him as a tool of “liberal activists” like Pelosi, Barbra Streisand and financier George Soros.

* House Republicans recently released a document stating that a Democratic House takeover would lead to committee chairmanships for several prominent liberal Democrats, including Reps. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, Charles B. Rangel of New York and John Conyers Jr. of Michigan.

“Nancy Pelosi is one of the most stridently liberal politicians in recent memory, and insofar as candidates can draw a contrast between their record and Pelosi’s record,” she could emerge as a campaign issue, said Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

For Taylor, it is the only issue the eight-term incumbent is talking about. It has been years since the timber and banking magnate faced a tough reelection challenge. He has rarely campaigned actively or advertised until the final weeks of a race. But with some polls showing Shuler in the lead and the race considered a tossup, Taylor ran the spot linking his opponent to Pelosi.

Shuler’s campaign calls Taylor’s ad dishonest, noting that the candidate has repeatedly said he opposed illegal immigration and supported the effort to strengthen the nation’s borders.

“I’m a Democrat,” Shuler said. “Pelosi and I certainly have different viewpoints on the social issues, but I feel like as a whole

Asked whether he would vote to make Pelosi the House speaker if he were part of a Democratic takeover of the House, Shuler responded: “Just as I was interviewed to run for this office, I will also do my interview process and pick the person that not only fits the best for our district but also fits our party best.”

Taylor often declines to speak with reporters, and calls to his campaign headquarters seeking comment about the ad were not returned. But Collegio, who noted that Pelosi’s campaign committee had given $4,000 to Shuler’s campaign, said the ad “shows Charles Taylor is taking this race seriously.”

Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, wonders how much good it will do. Citing a Gallup poll released this summer, Pitney noted that 40% of Americans surveyed either didn’t know Pelosi or had no opinion of her. Those who knew her were roughly split between positive and negative feelings, he said.

“Congressional leaders usually don’t provide much ammunition to the other party,” Pitney wrote in an e-mail interview. “In most cases, voters have only a hazy picture of the top Republicans and Democrats in Congress.”

Conservative Democrats so far seem immune to assertions that Shuler -- with his anti-abortion positions and orange “Sportsmen for Heath Shuler” bumper stickers -- is a closet liberal.

“I say Heath Shuler is a man with his own mind made up,” said John Leopard, a Cashiers, N.C., resident who attended a recent Shuler speech. “If he needed to vote with Nancy Pelosi, he would vote. If he had to vote against her, he would. That’s the reason I would vote for him.”

Asked recently by reporters about the Republican campaign tactic, Pelosi said it “represents a bankruptcy of ideas.”

“I think that it indicates the Republicans don’t have a positive agenda. ... They could have accomplished so many things for the American people and they have failed.”

Still, there could be other motives at work.

Pitney said that although swing voters aren’t likely to be moved much by anti-Pelosi campaigns, the tactic could succeed at energizing the Republicans’ conservative base.

“Conservative donors might open their checkbooks to stop a Pelosi speakership,” he said.