When Rep. Tom Cole became chairman of the Appropriations Committee in April, it was the first time an Oklahoman ascended to one of the most powerful posts in Congress.
For 15 years, Mr. Cole, a Republican, quietly rose up the panel with the gavel at the back of his head, writing and negotiating bipartisan spending bills. At the same time, he invested billions of dollars in projects for his state – its universities, hospitals and airports.
But now, just two months after taking office, his carefully laid plans could be derailed, and with it Oklahoma’s direct access to federal funds.
On Tuesday, he will face the biggest threat of his career yet: a primary challenge from a self-funded conservative, Paul Bondar, who is running on an anti-spending platform. With more than $8 million poured into the race, it has become one of the most expensive House primaries this year.
Mr. Cole’s gavel would once have given him a political advantage. Appropriations board leaders are able to use their power and gain favor domestically by steering federal money to build local infrastructure.
But in today’s Republican Party, where the right flank predominates and “spending” has become a dirty word, being an institutionalist who knows how to wield influence to bring federal money home is increasingly seen as a political liability bring.
Mr. Cole is widely expected to win, but the challenge reflects changes within the GOP that have helped make the party ungovernable. Mainstream and veteran lawmakers are increasingly being sidelined by ideologically motivated right-wing figures who have little interest in serving within the political establishment.
“It’s surprising that he would choose an opponent because the opportunity for the Fourth District to have someone like Tom Cole in that position and authority may never come – and if it does, it will be every 50 or 75 years,” said Joseph Harroz Jr., the president of the University of Oklahoma, said in an interview.
In recent years, right-wing hardliners have tormented their leaders in Congress over the budget process, demanding drastic spending cuts that the Democratic Senate and White House would never accept. They have repeatedly raised the specter of a shutdown and forced successive Republican House speakers to rely on Democrats to push through spending legislation.
Outside Washington, Republicans drafting government funding bills are counting on a base that opposes them.
Mr. Cole’s predecessor, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, also faced an unusually bitter challenge in 2020 from an anti-spending challenger. When the conservative Club for Growth poured more than $1 million into an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to defeat her in 2020, the group characterized it as part of a broader effort to punish those who supported excessive federal spending.
It’s an important part of the pitch Mr. Bondar is making against Mr. Cole this year.
“Tom Cole voted with the Democrats for billions of dollars in new deficit spending,” a narrator said in a television ad. “Paul Bondar opposes new federal spending.”
The type of primary challenge Mr. Bondar is taking on — he recently moved to Oklahoma from Texas and has never run for political office before — would normally raise few eyebrows from a political veteran of Mr. Cole’s stature.
Mr. Bondar recently gave a halting interview over Zoom to KFOR, a local television station, in which he froze when the reporter asked where he was.
“Are you in Texas right now?” asked reporter Spencer Humphrey.
“I’m in an office right now,” Mr. Bondar said.
“Is the office in Texas?” Mr. Humphrey asked. Mr. Bondar eventually admitted that he was actually in Texas and not Oklahoma.
Mr. Bondar, the founder of an Illinois-based insurance company, has so far spent just over $4.8 million to unseat Mr. Cole. Campaign finance reports show he raised $13,510 and loaned his campaign just over $5 million.
Mr. Bondar said in an interview that he was willing to invest so much of his own money in the race because he believed Mr. Cole’s voters deserved a more conservative representative who would spend more time in the district.
“His biggest shock to me is the fact that I haven’t been to Oklahoma in a while,” Mr. Bondar said. “But his biggest disadvantage is his record, and that’s what people look at. And he can’t buy his way out of his record now that he’s chairman of the House Budget Committee. It doesn’t work to try to buy your way out and say, “We’re going to give some money to other places.”
In the latest series of spending bills, Mr. Cole secured more than $108 million to support programs intended to benefit the University of Oklahoma alone. That included $36 million for the airport in Norman, Oklahoma, home of the school’s aviation program, to extend the runway and build two additional hangars, and $7 million for the university’s cancer center focused on eliminating health disparities across states’ indigenous populations.
“We live by a strategic plan,” Mr. Harroz said. “When you look at the opportunities we have that will enable the University of Oklahoma to grow in the next few years – the research we do, the students and industries we serve – Tom Cole is in this Position critical to this strategic plan.” ”
Mr. Harroz said years ago, when he was an executive at the university and looking for a new president, he reached out to Mr. Cole and asked him to consider taking on the role.
Mr. Cole, a former college lecturer in history and politics, quickly declined, saying he had another job in mind. He said he believes he may one day have the opportunity to become chairman of the House Budget Committee.
“If I got this seat, I could do more good for our state than I could as president of the University of Oklahoma,” Mr. Harroz said in response to Mr. Cole.
Still, Mr. Cole’s campaign focused more on Mr. Bondar’s ties to Texas and his support from former President Donald J. Trump.
“The district has found me to be quite effective over the years; “This position puts me in a stronger position,” Mr. Cole said of his chairmanship. “But I also know that I’m in a state where I suspect Donald Trump will carry every single county.”
“It won’t just be all church stuff,” he added.
Source link
2024-06-16 23:33:10
www.nytimes.com
