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A Tale of Two Parties
By Doug Patton
July 23, 2001

Mark Bradley is a business owner, a conservative Republican and the best political researcher with whom I have ever worked. We've served together in several campaigns, mostly congressional races. I'm the word guy; he's the research guru. Ask him a question about an issue and he will give you an informed answer, accompanied by an opinion. He is one of the best-read men I know. When it comes to public policy, there is no one better, and I have enormous respect for his knowledge, his judgment and his perspective.

Mark told me recently that if President Bush caves in on the issue of embryonic stem cell research, he intends to leave the Republican Party and become a registered Independent. I think he is not alone.

On this issue, and many others, the Republican Party is careening toward a crossroads. It has, in effect, already become two political entities motivated by very different values, with conservatives and liberals sharing a common party affiliation and little else. This dichotomy is at the heart of the battle for the soul of a party that seems to have forgotten its greatest recent successes: the landslide elections of President Ronald Reagan and the congressional sweep of 1994.

Nowhere is the stark contrast between these two factions more evident than in a pair of gubernatorial races shaping up at opposite ends of the country.

In New Jersey, former Jersey City mayor Brett Schundler is running for governor as an unabashed conservative. In a state that twice elected the socially liberal Christie Todd Whitman on the strength of her economic policies, Schundler is a political phenom of the first order and this year's candidate to watch.

Mark Bradley and I first became acquainted with Brett Schundler in 1994. Fresh from his mayoral victory in Jersey City, Schundler was visiting Omaha to campaign on behalf of Jon Christensen, the congressional candidate for whom Mark and I were then working. Schundler, a hero of school choice advocates, had scored a stunning upset in a Democrat stronghold by appealing to minority parents disgusted with their failing public schools.

A staunchly pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-school choice, pro-tax relief Republican who soundly defeated his so-called moderate opponent in this year's GOP primary for governor, Schundler is being dubbed "The Gipper of the Garden State," with conservatives already looking forward to seeing his name on a future national ticket.

Schundler represents one vision for the future of the GOP. It is the path of Ronald Reagan, of leadership and of well-articulated conservative policies.

The other vision is represented at the other end of the country, in the People's Republic of California, which in recent years has lurched to the left to a greater degree than ever before. Even the conservative voters of Orange County, once a ray of hope in an otherwise dismal sea of Socialism, haven't been able to save the nation's most populous state from itself. After watching former Attorney General Dan Lundgren's 1998 gubernatorial campaign implode from ineptitude, the GOP now seems intent on retaking the California governor's mansion from the aptly named Gray Davis at any cost.

Enter Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles, who is being courted by Republicans to challenge Davis for governor in 2002.

Having served two terms as mayor of the nation's second largest city, Riordan, now in his seventies, is rich, connected and well known. He is also as liberal as Brett Schundler is conservative. Riordan is pro-choice, favors gun control and, despite his tirades against California educrats for their failure to provide minorities with an education, opposes the one policy that would actually improve the situation, the solution that brought Brett Schundler to prominence in Jersey City -- parental choice in education.

The most disappointing aspect of the "Draft Riordan" movement is that Republicans who were elected as conservatives are endorsing it. Among them is the very conservative Rep. Dana Rohrebacher, R-Calif. But Riordan's most influential encouragement is coming directly from the White House. According to Riordan, the president is quietly but personally pushing for the candidacy from the Oval Office. Added to Bush's other recent gaffes -- the Salvation Army denial, the immigration proposal, the gutted education bill -- this apparent endorsement of one more liberal Republican will further alienate his conservative base.

I hope my friend Mark Bradley doesn't leave the Republican Party. I hope he stays to fight alongside me and the other conservatives who still believe in the philosophy expressed in the party platform, a platform some GOP candidates -- like Brett Schundler -- still take seriously. I hope he doesn't leave, but I will understand if he does. He is not alone in his disgust for a party that seems willing to jettison its most cherished ideals for the sake of a hollow election victory.

Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates and elected officials. His work can be viewed weekly on GOPUSA.

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