Panelists discuss GOP strategy at Pachyderm Club

The GOP won big in the 2010 midterm elections, and a group of Cape Girardeau Republicans gathered Thursday to discuss strategies to keep the momentum going for more gains in next year's political contests.

The key: Figure out what the tea party is going to do, said Will Miller, an assistant professor at Southeast Missouri State University. Miller is also an authority on polling data and an author of several articles analyzing the 2010 election.

Miller spoke Thursday at the SEMO Pachyderm Club before a panel discussion that included Rep. Donna Lichtenegger of Jackson and Recorder of Deeds Scott R. Clark.

The tea party movement helped swing elections from South Carolina to Wisconsin last year, Miller said, and support from the party made even bigger gains in state legislators across the country, including roughly 700 pickups in states such as Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama.

"Some say the tea party is Twitter without ideology, or a third party or that it may become the next Republican Party," Miller said, who has worked on many campaigns and is working on a book about the tea party's populist movement. "The question is can they continue the momentum without some organization?"

The tea party is even causing some traditional Republicans to at least try to sound more conservative, Miller said.

"It may only be rhetoric, it may only be lip service, but it's bringing everybody back," he said. "You need a candidate who appeals to tea partiers, but also one who can appear as though he distances himself from the tea party to appeal to moderates. Good luck finding that person."

The panel discussion was held with Lichtenegger, Clark and Miller fielding questions from Wayne Bowen, a Southeast professor and chair of the university's department of history. Rep. Billy Pat Wright of Dexter, Mo., was scheduled to be on the panel but could not make it.

Lichtenegger told the group that she ran because of health care and suggested that those considering a run for office at any level have something that they're passionate about.

"I knew we would have to do something to protect us at the state level," she said.

Clark suggested that anyone running for office take as many possibilities into consideration as possible, saying that he failed to anticipate a primary opponent.

"There hadn't been a primary for recorder of deeds since 1968, but I wish I had been prepared for that," Clark said.

The recent Republican victors, both Clark and Lichtenegger, won their seats earlier this year and offered advice for those thinking about a run.

Miller suggested candidates seek out people who have run before and lost.

"If you want to run against Jo Ann Emerson, for example, you should go and talk to Tommy Sowers and then assume you're starting with 34 percent of the vote and go from there," he said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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