Advantages of an Unknown Congressman

Christopher Cox for vice president?

“Who?” Time magazine asked recently.

“Who?” laughed ABC’s Washington correspondent Cokie Roberts this spring when conservative columnist George Will, speaking on a Sunday morning talk show, threw out the name of the Republican congressman from Newport Beach.

Long before Republicans had settled on former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole as their 1996 presidential nominee, Will began floating the name of the Californian he thought should fill the supporting role of vice presidential candidate.

He wrote in a Newsweek column last October that President Clinton needs to win California’s 54 electoral votes to remain in the White House. “The Republican nominee may be tempted, for purely electoral reasons, to do the right thing for the country--to pick as his running mate four-term Rep. Chris Cox.”

And in answering its own question about Cox, Time described the 43-year-old, four-term House member and former Reagan White House lawyer as “in many ways a composite of what Dole needs in a running mate.” Cox, the magazine stated, has the added advantage of being a Roman Catholic from Minnesota, “thus appealing to the swing ethnic voters in the battleground states in the Midwest.” Also promoting Cox have been the Washington Times and the National Review.

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That Cox’s name is now being dropped more often--largely because of the continued promotion by a prominent political commentator--says as much about the power of political parlor games as about the veep wannabe himself.

Even Will, a friend of Cox and his wife, acknowledges it is a longshot: “Talk about dropping a rose petal in the Grand Canyon!”

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” remarked Bill Press, the co-host of CNN’s Crossfire and former California Democratic Party chairman. “Chris Cox is not known outside of Orange County. He would not carry California and he has no other base. . . . He would be the Bill Miller of 1996, the obscure congressman who brings nothing to the ticket.” Miller was the Upstate New York congressman who was Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater’s veep pick in 1964.

The Dole campaign only says there are still no long or short lists of prospective veeps, although Cox said he answered the campaign’s request for his resume.

His supporters are mindful of his movie star good looks--a flashy smile and not a hair out of place; a young man whose tanned frame comfortably carries the omnipresent conservative gray suit and crisp white shirt.

Not even Hollywood, they maintain, could have scripted a better supporting role--a “rising star” from a key electoral state, with high intelligence wattage, one who rose from relative obscurity last year to overhaul the rules governing securities lawsuits.

His family package includes a wife with her own political credentials (a lawyer and vice president for Continental Airlines and a two-term member of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission), a young son and daughter, and even an astronaut for a brother-in-law.

And where was Cox during the Vietnam War, some may wonder. Holding on to his student deferment until 1971 when he drew a high lottery number.

He carefully measures his responses on social issues such as abortion. Cox is against a constitutional amendment banning abortion, saying, “This is a matter for the states and not the federal government.” For the same reason, his opposition to all federal funding for abortion has helped him earn a 100% favorable rating by the Christian Coalition.

Michael Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Cox could unify “the whole range of the Republican base, from [Christian Coalition Executive Director] Ralph Reed to George Will. You tell me who is young and attractive, and who can unify the party in that kind of way.”

Aside from ideology and geography, Dole could go for the “big play . . . confusing expectations,” and pick a fresh face like Cox, said James P. Pinkerton of the graduate school of political management at George Washington University. Still, “if Dole is looking for a House Republican with electricity, he’s better off with John Kasich,” House Budget Committee chairman and a congressman from Ohio.

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Only two House members have successfully leaped to the vice presidency this century: James Schoolcraft Sherman of New York and former House Speaker John Nance Garner.

“I’m happy to say I’d be delighted to say ‘yes’ if asked,” Cox said, coyly suggesting he’s not taking all the speculation too seriously. But he has been thinking about it.

“Unless you’re Colin Powell, you’re not likely to be known,” he said. “Half my voters are younger than I am. And the center of gravity of the country has shifted west of the Mississippi. While I would be the first to concede that it’s easy to fashion a winning ticket that doesn’t include me, paying attention to such factors is sound strategy.”