GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — “We’ll just see about that,” said Brian Ellis.
“You are right, we will just see about that,” said Justin Amash.
Is this any way for adult Republicans to talk to each other?
It is when one Republican, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, surprises the other, primary challenger Brian Ellis, by calling into a live radio talk show to defend his record. The verbal sparring was just one more highlight in a campaign in which the candidates are calling each other RINOs, and believing they are battling for not only a U.S. House seat but also the soul of the Republican Party.
Amash and Ellis are locked in an epic GOP congressional primary race in Michigan’s conservative 3rd Congressional District, where a Democrat hasn’t won the presidential election since the LBJ landslide buried Barry Goldwater in 1964.
Brian Ellis, the president of Grand Rapids-based Brooktree Capital Management, whose only political experience is his 15 years on the suburban East Grand Rapids school board, entered the primary in August 2014 because he believes Amash — a Tea Party favorite — is not conservative enough.
“Amash talks the game, but doesn’t vote the game,” Ellis said.
Amash, a 33-year-old attorney, was the second-youngest member of the U.S. House when he won the November 2010 election. The second-generation Arab-American served in the Michigan House of Representatives before he won his first GOP primary in 2010. Amash defeated Patrick Miles — a Democrat who was a Harvard University classmate of President Barack Obama — the following November.
Amash campaigned as a “principled conservative” and has described himself as a Libertarian, sending birthday cards to former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) who reciprocated with a two-day fundraiser that pulled in $100,000 for Amash.
After easily winning reelection in 2012, Amash, along with Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas), tried to unseat House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
The coup failed. Amash was kicked off the House Budget Committee, something he described on his Facebook page as “a slap in the face.”
It must have felt like a punch in the gut when not one single Michigan Republican in Congress donated even one thin dime to the Amash campaign in the first quarter of 2014.
The Detroit News reported at least two retiring congressmen gave money to Ellis, though, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) came close to endorsing Ellis.
Hardly surprising if only because of the failed coup attempt, but House leadership isn’t backing Amash either.
However, Boehner isn’t the only Republican who has had it with Amash. Karl Rove has called him the “most liberal Republican” in Congress. National Journal branded Amash the fifth most liberal Republican in Congress in 2013, and said he was the Republican who voted least often with his party.
Ellis’ main campaign theme is Amash is not conservative enough and has a record of “bizarre” votes.
“If you have somebody that doesn’t vote for a balanced budget amendment, didn’t support the Keystone pipeline, didn’t vote for a small-business tax cut, didn’t support the pro-life agenda on critical votes, who’s the RINO?” said Ellis.
Amash argues Ellis is misleading voters by dredging up years-old votes and “mischaracterizing” them.
“You pretend that I am not conservative. You think you are going to fool anyone with that?” Amash said when he called the radio talk show to defend his record against Ellis’ attacks.
Ellis has been branded as a RINO by RedState and an Amash campaign team member, who requested anonymity, said the conservative blog got it right.
Does it really make any difference which candidate is more RINO than the other?
If there is one thing the campaigns agree on it is that the RINO question is an important distinction to make because the 3rd Congressional District race is for more than just a seat in the House. It is really about the candidate that best typifies the character and future of the Republican Party.
“Is that a candidate who is friendly with big business and supports corporate welfare, or is it a principled conservative who fights corporate giveaways, and protects individual rights and constitutional liberties?” asked the Amash campaign staffer.
“Do we want an old school Republican who is perfectly happy to hobnob with elites and corporations or do we want a more modern Republican?”
When reminded that Dick DeVos, the son of Amway Corporation co-founder Rich DeVos and a member of one of the richest families in the world — Forbes listed him as the 67th richest person in the nation in 2012 with an estimated net worth of $5.1 billion — had supported Amash, the staffer admitted both campaigns have “healthy support” in the business world.
Still, he said, the campaign still comes down to “two very different definitions of what it means to be a Republican.”
That distinction has galvanized supporters on both sides.
Ken Sikkema, a former GOP state legislator from suburban Grand Rapids who is backing Ellis, does not like the direction in which Amash is pushing the Republican Party. Sikkema accuses Amash of being “one of a very small group of Republicans in Congress who are trying to create some kind of a Libertarian national brand and the 3rd Congressional District is a convenient vehicle for him to do it.”
Erika King, a Grand Valley State University political science professor in Grand Rapids, said Ellis could mount a serious challenge to Amash, if the business community rallies behind him.
Ellis picked up the endorsement of the Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC) in April because the group blames Amash for joining a drive to shut down the federal government.
“You can’t build a house if an earthquake is shaking the ground beneath you. And you can’t create jobs and grow our economy if there is no stability in the economic environment,” said Greg Casey, the CEO of BIPAC, in a statement. “With no budgets, the threat of U.S. debt default every few months and government shutdowns, refusal to support domestic energy expansion and balanced budgets, political radicals have done grave harm to our economy.”
The Atlantic magazine did list Amash as one of the “32 Republicans Who Caused The Government Shutdown” in October 2013.
That was enough to convince a dentist in Grand Rapids, Christopher Smiley, to back the Ellis campaign.
“The financial fallout of the shutdown or a default on the debt would be devastating for small businesses in West Michigan,” said Smiley. “Overall, I think we in the business community are looking for stability.”
However, Amash’s fight against the GOP establishment in Washington is one reason that David Mehney, the president of The KMW Group in Grand Rapids, a company that distributes medical products internationally, supports Amash.
“I like people who are willing to speak up, and Justin is one of them,” said Mehney. “That pisses off some people. But so be it, that is the way it should be.”
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