Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: GOP governors confident they'll pick up party slack Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:03:26 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD GOP governors confident they'll pick up party slack \BY Ralph Z. Hallow \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Republican governors, now only 18 strong after the Nov. 3 elections, nevertheless were calling themselves the "new generation" of GOP leadership as they opened their annual meeting yesterday at Lake Geneva, Wis. Despite their loss of eight of the 12 races for governor, they're pumped up, in part because they have among their numbers an unually large stable of possible contenders for the 1996 GOP presidential nomination. One of them, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, told a press conference yesterday that one purpose of their get-together is nothing less than to discuss "the leading role which Republican governors will play in determining the future of the Republican Party nationally." "President-elect Clinton talks about change, but the real change in this country is occurring in the states," said Mr. Thompson, who impressed fellow conservatives around the country with his innovations in welfare and education in his state. "We are going to be the strongest voice for Republican policies and ideals across the country," Mr. Thompson said in a telephone interview last night, adding that he was confident his fellow governors "will have the pulse of the nation better than Republicans in Washignton." Another reason Mr. Thompson and the other governors are feeling their oats is that their historic competitors for national party leadership are the White House - when it's occupied by a Republican, as it has been for the last 12 years - and the GOP congressional leadership. The White House will be Republican no more come January. Nor did the GOP make the gains in Congress that reapportionment and 12 years of presidential dominance once seemed to promise. The representatives of the failed GOP administration and the GOP congressional leadership who will be there today and tomorrow for a "dialogue" with the governors include Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, Vice President Dan Quayle and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, all possible presidential candidates. House Minority Leader Bob Michel and House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich will be there, too, along with Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, and Labor Secretary Lynn Martin, who is actively campaigning to succeed Rich Bond as national party chairman. Other contenders for the Republican National Committee chairmanship expected to pitch their candidacies in person are Spencer Abraham of the National Republican Congressonal Committee; Charles Black, who was senior adviser to Bush-Quayle '92; and Haley Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi. The reason so many RNC chairman hopefuls are making the trek is that, although the governors can't vote in that contest - only RNC members can - the governors can influence the three RNC members from their respective states. "I'm urging the governors to do that and to hold off on backing anyone until we hear from them here," Mr. Thompson said. Mr. Dole, who is to address the governors today, argued on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday that the party should choose a national chairman who focuses on party-building at the state and county level and is not a 1996 candidate or backing such a candidate. Many RNC members interviewed by The Washington Times over the weekend expressed a similar view. The governors like to point to their can-do records and implicitly compare them with the outgoing GOP administration in Washington and Republicans in Congress, all of whom talked about innovation while the federal government kept growing. Mr. Thompson, for example, points to his accomplishemnts, such as "learnfare," which denies welfare checks to the parent of a chronically truant child, and workfare, which requires welfare recipients to sign up for jobs. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM