WASHINGTON INSIGHT

REPEATING HISTORY? Back in 1940, the dynamic utilities tycoon Wendell Willkie burst out of nowhere to steal the Republican presidential nomination from under the noses of the GOP’s Old Guard. Now another business magnate, Malcolm S. (Steve) Forbes Jr., is contemplating following in Willkie’s footsteps and challenging the power of the party hierarchy. Inspired by his reading of “Dark Horse,” a Willkie biography--and prodded by GOP consultant Jude Wanniski and others looking for someone to make up for the absence from the current field of premier tax-cutter Jack Kemp--the head of the Forbes magazine empire is expected to announce today that he is considering entering the 1996 sweepstakes and will decide by September. Along with Forbes’ reputed grasp of international finance and executive skill, his candidacy would possess a huge asset: his willingness to spend $10 million of his own money to campaign. One drawback to pursuing history’s example: Willkie’s saga ended in defeat in November when, with war clouds gathering, voters gave Franklin D. Roosevelt a third term.

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EARLY MONEY: Some first-term Republican House members are raising eyebrows by holding campaign fund-raisers with a $1,000-per-person ticket price--a tab traditionally reserved for more senior lawmakers. And, strikingly, donors are buying. The GOP newcomers benefit not only from their majority-party status but also from being part of a large, activist and close-knit class. “The lobbyists keep turning out the money because these people have influence as never before,” said one prominent lobbyist and contributor. “You’re not giving to one isolated person; you may have a block of five or six freshmen on a committee.” Take freshman Rep. Daniel Frisa (R-N.Y.), a member of the influential Commerce Committee, who garnered $120,000 at a $1,000-a-head political action committee event in Washington in March. This was more than a third of the total that Frisa spent to win a multi-candidate race with 50% of the vote in 1994.

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ANOTHER TRY: House leaders have breathed new life into efforts to make major changes in the chamber’s committee structure by appointing a task force dominated by reform-minded freshmen to study the issue during the next 10 months. Prospects for significant reforms dimmed earlier this year when incoming Republican committee chairmen led a charge to scale back changes, with the House ultimately agreeing to kill just three full committees and 20 subcommittees, leaving 86 subcommittees in place. Nine of the 15 members on the task force are freshmen. If they push through sweeping changes, they will effectively repeal the work of another group of freshmen who, 20 years ago, sought to overhaul the House by diluting the power of committee chairmen. They did so by vastly expanding the number of subcommittees.

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REPUBLICAN STRIPES: Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the Colorado maverick whose celebrated leap from the Democratic Party to the GOP sent concussion waves through Congress in March, so far has been more than a Republican in name only. He has voted with Democrats just 16% of the time since the switch, compared with 78% in 1994, according to the Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. When he jumped parties, Campbell insisted that he would not change his positions on important issues. In that vein, it should be noted that much of the Senate’s business this spring has been on fiscal matters and that Campbell has long described himself as a conservative on fiscal affairs but a moderate on social issues. Campbell told the newspaper that he finds the Republicans are more focused. “I’m not trying to malign my old party, but the Democrats try to be more things to more people, and you just can’t do that. It diffuses the message.”