Republicans Campaign Anew--for Party Chairmanship

WASHINGTON —  Flickering across the screen in living color are the images of the candidate, his wife and their two sons.

“I believe a commitment to stronger values begins at home,” says Steve Merrill, outgoing governor of New Hampshire.

If this vignette makes you fear the late, unlamented 1996 campaign is about to start up again, stop worrying. The videotape will never be broadcast by a television station. It’s aimed instead at the living room VCRs of a select electorate--the 165 members of the Republican National Committee, who on Friday will select a new national chairman for their party.

The vote occurs amid circumstances without modern precedent. And Merrill, whose backers hail his gifts as a communicator, is only one of nine contenders for the job, most spending about $200,000 each as they traipse around the country in search of support.

This might seem an extraordinary effort for a post that in the past was considered such a dead end that George Bush’s wife begged him in vain not to take it, and so vulnerable that Bob Dole was fired from it.

But a political configuration that has not coincided with any chairmanship election in recent memory accounts for the fervor of the current competition. Republicans do not occupy the White House--in some ways a relief for a party chairman who otherwise would be under the thumb of presidential underlings--but do control both Houses of Congress and 32 of the nation’s governorships, providing a rich opportunity to build and define the party.

“This party has a whole new job to do,” said David Norcross of New Jersey, the GOP’s general counsel and a leading candidate for the chairmanship, whose skill as a fund-raiser and long experience on the national committee are considered his prime assets. “It’s a different opportunity and a different challenge. What the party now has to have is a working coalition of governors, congressional leaders and state parties.”

The new chairman’s first priority will be to keep the disagreements among Republicans from overshadowing their differences with the Democrats--and that is unlikely to prove easy. “The party is fractured, with serious regional and philosophical divisions,” said John Herrington, California’s state GOP chairman who is making a bid for the national job by stressing his skills as a harmonizer.

Indeed, the chairmanship contest offers a preview of the fractiousness the winner will face. One issue is the one many Republican leaders like to talk about least and that almost tore their platform committee apart at last year’s convention--abortion.

Norcross supports the right to abortion, and although his position is hedged with sundry conditions, he remains stamped as unacceptable to staunch abortion foes on the committee. Norcross claims that except for this issue, he would have the $170,000-a-year job locked up.

A number of abortion foes are lining up behind the candidacy of Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken, whose forte is building grass-roots support among conservative activists. But his aggressive style is too confrontational to suit some tastes.

The contest’s handicappers say Pauken and Norcross have the firmest backing, but they doubt either can get the 83 votes needed for a majority. That could give victory on a later ballot to Merrill or one of several other possible compromise choices, such as Colorado committee member Jim Nicholson or Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett.

Ultimately, most expect the race will be settled less by ideology than by the nuts-and-bolts concerns of the committee members. “The controlling factors will be who can raise money, who can run the operation, who understands campaigns and who has the stature to get along with [Senate Majority Leader] Trent Lott and [House Speaker] Newt Gingrich,” predicted veteran GOP consultant David Keene.

Tom Rath, a longtime Republican leader in New Hampshire and a Merrill backer, said: “There will be a lot of people who sit down one-on-one and say, ‘I don’t care about the grand scheme of things. But I do care about whether I can be on the convention site selection committee.’ ”

Times librarian Malloy Moore contributed to this story.