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Sen. Ensign: I’ve earned Finance seat |
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By Elana Schor and Ian Swanson
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Posted: 06/22/07 07:37 PM [ET] |
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faces a tough choice in deciding who should fill a slot on the powerful Senate Finance Committee vacated by the death of Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.).
GOP Sens. John Ensign (Nev.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) both want the position. While Enzi has the edge on seniority, Ensign says he should get the nod because of his willingness to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) when other colleagues were unwilling.
“I’ve obviously done a lot to help my colleagues by taking [that] job when nobody else wanted it, and I think folks should be rewarded for extra work,” Ensign told The Hill. As NRSC chairman, Ensign must defend 21 GOP seats next year.
He also noted the ample precedent for his possible ascension to Finance. In 2005, then-Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed newly minted Democratic campaign chief Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to Finance, giving Schumer extra incentive to push the Democrats to record fundraising and a midterm victory in 2006.
For his part, Enzi says that he has wanted a Finance spot since he arrived in the Senate in 1996, four years before Ensign was elected. “I have seniority,” said Enzi, who also argues that as the Senate’s only accountant, he is uniquely qualified to serve on Finance, which oversees tax and trade policy.
“I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision,” said Jade West, a former staff director of the Senate Republican Steering Committee who is now vice president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and director of the Tax Relief Coalition. She said business groups would likely be happy with either Ensign or Enzi on Finance.
Besides the four years of seniority, something taken very seriously by the tradition-bound GOP Senate caucus, Enzi has two other strong cards: He represents the same state as Thomas, which previously prevented him from jumping to the committee, and he does not currently sit on any of the four so-called “Super A” committees, considered the Senate’s most prestigious.
Ensign, by contrast, serves on Armed Services. Two other potential candidates, Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), are both Foreign Relations members. Those panels are among the “Super A” four.
Voinovich came to the Senate in 1999, which places him a bar higher on the seniority ladder than Ensign, but below Enzi.
He said he had made his interest in serving on the committee “very clear” to McConnell, but acknowledged that seniority rules could be a hurdle.
Another factor could be Voinovich’s record as a bit of a GOP maverick on tax and budget issues. Voinovich has threatened to vote against tax cuts proposed by the administration, and McConnell might prefer to pick a Finance member more in line with GOP orthodoxy.
Voinovich and Ensign both wanted to fill an opening on Finance created by last year’s election, but lost out to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who came to the Senate in 1996 after serving several terms in the House.
A dark horse for the Finance slot could be Coleman, who is up for reelection next year in a swing state and could get a boost in fundraising from a Finance position. However, Coleman suggested he is somewhat reluctant to leave Foreign Relations, where he is the third-ranking Republican.
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