GOP insiders hitch ride on ‘tea party’ bandwagon

This was supposed to be the wrong year for Washington insiders. But no point telling that to Republican Senate candidates such as Roy Blunt and Dan Coats.

Blunt is a longtime member of Congress from Missouri who led the Republican House shoulder-to-shoulder with the disgraced Tom DeLay, the former Texas lawmaker considered by some to be the very symbol of Republican hubris and overreach. Blunt voted for the massive Medicare expansion plan in 2003 and the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

Coats is a former Indiana senator turned ambassador. And as a former lobbyist, he’s a walking example of Washington’s revolving-door culture.

But both are poised to be elected to the Senate next week in relatively uncompetitive races, taking full advantage of voter discontent with the Democrats in power.

The two could not be farther from the outsider, “citizen-legislator” persona cultivated by such Republicans as Ron Johnson in Wisconsin and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, who famously declared “I’m you” in a campaign ad.

Blunt and Coats aren’t fresh faces. They’re old hands, familiar with levers of power and the perks of office. But their ascent shows how seasoned candidates are able to quietly move into position to ride this year’s GOP wave. As they do, they’ve been able to avoid the kind of mistakes made by less-experienced contenders, such as Senate candidates Sharron Angle in Nevada and Joe Miller in Alaska.

Blunt and Coats aren’t alone in a Republican field that also includes Rob Portman, a former congressman and U.S. trade representative under President George W. Bush, who is expected to be Ohio’s next senator; and Pat Toomey, a former congressman locked in a tight Senate race in Pennsylvania.

Also running are John Boozman, a congressman for a decade in Arkansas who is considered likely to defeat Democrat Blanche Lincoln next week and take her Senate seat; and Steve Chabot from Cincinnati, a former seven-term member of Congress seen as likely to reclaim his old post from Rep. Steve Driehaus. Chabot served as one of the House managers for President Clinton’s impeachment trial more than a decade ago.

Some, such as Blunt and Coats, owe part of their success to trying to win over “tea party” activists who previously viewed their candidacies with suspicion.

“I do believe in second chances,” Jen Ennenbach, a member of the St. Louis Tea Party, said of Blunt.

Ennenbach was impressed that Blunt placed his signature this month on a “tea party treaty,” in which he pledged to repeal the massive healthcare overhaul and swore to be fiscally responsible.

But Ennenbach warned: “If he falls out of line, we’re going to call him on it. If he doesn’t correct, we’ll spend the next five years recruiting the next person to run against him.”

It was an unlikely turn of events. Blunt, a seven-term congressman, had been soundly criticized by some tea party groups in Missouri for his support of the 2008 TARP bill and the “cash for clunkers” program, as well as the pricey expansion of Medicare to add a prescription drug program.

“That has been a source of reservation about many in the tea party movement,” said Eric Farris, a Branson, Mo., lawyer and organizer of the local tea party group. His group was one of several that signed onto a letter criticizing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for coming to Missouri to campaign for Blunt this year, while making clear that state tea party groups had not endorsed Blunt.

Farris said Blunt’s signing of the tea party treaty didn’t change his view. “The tea party movement is concentrating on not listening to what they say, but watching what they do,” he said. Asked about the tea party treaty, Blunt’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Blunt’s Democratic opponent, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, has tried to hammer Blunt with the “insider” charge, portraying herself as the race’s new blood, but she continues to trail in polls. Brian Calfano, a political analyst with Missouri State University in Springfield, said voters were overlooking Blunt’s Washington past for one reason: the president.

“The albatross around Carnahan’s neck is Obama,” Calfano said. “People aren’t enthusiastic about Blunt, but they don’t want to give Carnahan the ability to be a rubber stamp.”

Experience can matter on the campaign trail. Former members of Congress such as Portman, Toomey and Coats haven’t blundered into gaffes like O’Donnell, who was mocked nationally for revealing she knew little about the 1st Amendment, or Miller, whose security team handcuffed a reporter at a campaign event.

“These new candidates, these untested candidates, are very unpredictable,” said Robert Dion, a political science professor at the University of Evansville in Indiana. “Dan Coats is a sure thing. He knows how to raise money. He knows how to run a campaign.”

Coats left the Senate in 1999, went to work as a lobbyist for a prominent Washington lobbying firm, and was later named ambassador to Germany. Coats expressed interest in the Senate race after Sen. Evan Bayh announced his retirement this year, and Democrats hammered his ties to special interests. But his opponent, Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), a former sheriff, hasn’t mounted a serious threat.

Lately, Coats has been making the rounds at tea party meetings in Indiana. “They are the spark that started the fire,” Coats told an Indiana television station.

This week, he greeted a group of more than 400 in Terre Haute, bringing along Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a tea party favorite and possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate.

“It comes down to once a Hoosier, always a Hoosier,” said Mary Wright, a tea party organizer who attended the event. “We’re very fundamental, basic, conservative people. Dan sounded that message.”

joliphant@latimes.com