January 12, 2004
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Vital Republican Center
By CHRISTIE WHITMAN

OLDWICK, N.J. — On May 5, 1996, when I was halfway through my first term as governor of New Jersey, there was a picture of me on the cover of this newspaper's Sunday magazine, accompanied by the headline, "It's My Party Too." I liked that message so much, I had it framed and hung it in my office in Trenton and, later, Washington. To moderate Republicans like me, that headline proclaimed our belief that there was still room for us in the party of Lincoln.

Now, almost eight years later, many moderate Republicans feel even less certain of their place in the party. When President Bush, arguably one of the more conservative presidents in recent history, is under attack from the right wing of the party for his proposal regarding immigration and migrant workers, is it any wonder moderates feel out of sync?

It doesn't seem to matter to conservatives that moderates share their views on the vast majority of those bedrock principles that have always been the foundation of Republicanism: smaller government, the power of free markets, a strong national defense. Because we disagree on a few issues, most notably a woman's right to choose, many conservatives act as if they wish we moderates would just disappear.

This phenomenon is not unique to Republicans. Many moderate Democrats also feel alienated from their party; Senator Zell Miller of Georgia has recently written a book about it. Party estrangement is, sadly, bipartisan, and it is destroying American politics.

Some might ask why Republicans should be concerned about broadening their appeal to moderate voters; many in the G.O.P. believe it already is the majority party. And it is true that we have done a better job than the Democrats of winning the votes of a larger number of the shrinking percentage of voters who actually go to the polls.

But that doesn't mean Republicans have a lock on the electorate. We control Congress and the presidency, but a switch of fewer than 21,000 votes in two states in the 2002 elections would have denied Republicans control of the Senate. Had Al Gore been able to carry his home state, Tennessee, in 2000, today he'd be preparing for his own re-election campaign.

A true majority party should not be in such a potentially precarious position. We find ourselves in this situation in part because we too often follow the advice of political consultants to appeal not to a majority of the electorate but only to the most motivated voters — those with the most zealous, ideological beliefs. Both parties now concentrate largely on turning out greater numbers of their most fervent supporters.

As a result, candidates tailor their appeals to those who already agree with them. The inevitable outcome is rhetoric that precludes a sensible discussion of issues. Those with the most shrill voices are increasingly dominating our political discourse.

This strategy has also colored public policy. When I was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, one of my first acts was to take a second look at a federal regulation limiting the level of arsenic in drinking water. There was no question the regulation as it then stood would be made more strict. The issue was whether the limit set by the previous administration, which had yet to take effect, had gone too far. I also wanted to make sure the regulation was based on sound science and a thorough cost analysis.

But the outcry from Democrats and the environmental lobby was mind-boggling. It set a tone that made sensible discussion of important questions almost impossible. In the end, after careful study, we allowed the stricter regulation to take effect.

Unfortunately, genuine advances in environmental protection were frequently lost amid extremist rhetoric. When the E.P.A. proposed a rule to reduce pollution from the thousands of unregulated diesel engines — tractors, backhoes, and other equipment — the National Resources Defense Council hailed it as "the most significant public health proposal in decades."

Within days, however, that changed. Other environmental groups expressed dismay that any environmentalist would say something so positive about the administration. Eventually the council wrote us a letter asking that we stop using that comment because it felt there could have been other environmental proposals that might have been more important to public health.

I also often had to battle extremists within my own party. I remember a Republican leader in Congress telling me not to use the word "balance" when talking about environmental policy — it implied that we were giving too much away to the environmentalists. Moderate voters who are concerned about the environment were often left frustrated.

Some Republican consultants say that since we're not going to win the votes of environmentalists anyway, we needn't worry about what they think. Yet there are plenty of voters who care about the environment, even if it's not the first thing they mention in polls. Politics that writes off large parts of the electorate is both counterproductive and short-sighted. Yet both parties seem determined to pursue that course.

What too many Republican strategists seem to have learned from the 2000 election is that the states which voted for Al Gore — the entire West Coast, most of the Northeast, much of the Upper Midwest — aren't worth fighting for. It's the wrong lesson.

Of the 20 states that President Bush lost in the 2000 election, 15 either had then, or have since elected, a Republican governor. Of those governors, almost every one can fairly be described as a moderate Republican: George Pataki in New York, Linda Lingle in Hawaii, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, to name just three. In addition, polls show that in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maine, voters are evenly split in their party affiliation.

Moderates can find much to like in this president; the Republican Party need only show it values their support. President Bush's stance on issues like education, health care and the environment will resonate with moderates. If even half the states that have elected moderate Republican governors in recent years were added to what the president won in 2000, he would be re-elected in a landslide. If that happens, then Republicans from every part of the country, both moderate and conservative, could finally proclaim that the G.O.P. truly is their party, too.
 

Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2001 to 2003, is writing a book about the place of moderates in the Republican Party.