Keeping Up With Walter Jones
Challenger Joe McLaughlin was half right in describing the stakes of the North Carolina 3rd Congressional District’s Republican primary: It was, as he told Congressional Quarterly, about the future of the Republican Party in his congressional district and beyond. But Congressman Walter Jones’s nearly 20-point margin of victory doesn’t signal the end of the party. It points the way out of the quagmire that is Iraq, both for the country and the GOP.
Let’s recap: Walter Jones, a fine Southern gentleman, like many conservatives initially supported the Iraq War out of patriotic instinct. He voted to authorize the use of force and helped lead the crusade to designate French fried potatoes “freedom fries” on congressional menus to protest France’s opposition to the war. But unlike the vast majority of his Republican congressional colleagues, Jones was willing to rethink his position once the consequences--and the dubious prewar intelligence--became apparent. By 2005, he had emerged as one of the most passionate antiwar voices in Congress.
Because of his shift on the war, Jones—one of the most conservative members of Congress and a 1994 Contract with America signer--was slandered as a “liberal.” Yet from Joe McLaughlin’s own campaign website, Jones scored a perfect 100 rating from the American Conservative Union four times and twice missed a perfect score by just one vote. His lifetime ACU rating is 91.9 percent.
Of course, Jones’s conservative critics argue that it wasn’t just about Iraq. Jones voted for a Democratic farm bill that offset increased food-stamp spending with higher taxes on some U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations, which was considered a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge (though Jones opposed the tax provision and McLaughlin voted to raise taxes as Onslow county commissioner). He didn’t pledge to sustain presidential vetoes of Democratic spending bills. Jones also received low marks from the Club for Growth on its anti-pork report card.
Some of these positions were ill advised. The farm bill was a boondoggle even without the added insult of the tax hike. President Bush should be encouraged to occasionally veto excessive spending bills, something he failed to do once when his GOP cronies controlled Congress. Grover Norquist was probably right to tell The Hill, “[Jones] was so mad at Bush that he couldn’t see straight.” Would that other Republicans get angry with the president.
Other criticisms of Jones are bogus. Jones voted for a Democratic agriculture appropriation without language prohibiting taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants. But Jones has consistently opposed such benefits throughout his career and was to the right of his primary opponent on immigration. Jones was a stalwart in the fight against amnesty and has excellent ratings from immigration-restrictionist groups.
More importantly, as Marcus Epstein pointed out on this webzine, Jones was a staunch fiscal conservative on the votes that really mattered. He was one of just 25 Republicans to oppose the 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit, which added nearly $12 trillion in unfunded liabilities to the teetering entitlement program--a far bigger expansion of the federal government than the appropriations and earmarks Jones was attacked for supporting. He was also part of the small band of Republicans who voted against No Child Left Behind, a minority position even among the reputedly conservative Republican Study Committee.
The fact is, given Jones’s record on taxes, spending, pro-life issues, and immigration, without the war a primary challenge based on his minor economic transgressions would have been laughable. Jones’s votes on Iraq and efforts to avoid war with Iran were the main reasons for Washington conservative interest in his primary challenger (though Jones’s votes to impeach the vice president surely peaked some interest as well).
Jones’s victory marks a major shift in fortunes for beleaguered antiwar Republicans. Since 2002, the GOP’s dissenters on the Iraq war haven’t done noticeably better at the polls than their pro-war colleagues. Three antiwar Republicans were defeated in the 2006 elections. Hawks targeted most of the remainder in primaries, defeating Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrest and probably hastening Sen. Chuck Hagel’s retirement.
In the end, the war and other Bush missteps left the Republican Party too weak to purge Jones. His primary challenger wasn’t able to get the money that once seemed possible to finance his campaign. The powers that be decided, given their trouble holding onto House seats, it was better to have a well-funded incumbent running in North Carolina’s 3rd District.
Now Jones isn’t the only antiwar Republican running for Congress from North Carolina. Ron Paul Republican B.J. Lawson overwhelmingly won his primary in the 4th District. And incumbent Congressman Howard Coble is also on record as saying we should get out of Iraq, though he rarely votes that way. Perhaps the Jones and Lawson results will encourage him.
Antiwar conservatives are a long way from having more than token representation within the Republican Party. But Walter Jones’s primary win is a positive sign for a movement that has all too rarely tasted victory.
W. James Antle III is associate editor of The American Spectator.
Comments
Walter Jones is an admirable Tar Heel, and many of us down here are delighted that he
won the primary. However, one factor that should have been mentioned in this good
article is this: Walter Jones’ father held that seat for over twenty years BEFORE Walter
Junior suceeded him. In fact, over half the voters living in the district have NEVER
had anyone representing them who didn’t have the last name “Jones.” Not to take anything
away from Walter Jr., who has been an excellent congressman, but his last name, and his
incumbency, had quite a bit with his selection.
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Another (albeit smaller) reason the neocons dislike Walter Jones is his growing opposition to free trade. CATO only gives Jones a 17% pro-free trade voting record. He voted against CAFTA, free trade with Peru, Singapore, etc., and rightly so.
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Given his courage and independence on the war, did he express any outrage over the Duke rape hoax abomination, or say anything even mildly critical as this madness went on for over a year?
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I heard Rep. Jones speak at an event sponsored by Chronicles magazine a while back, when the effort to purge him was gearing up: he was impressive, sincere, and quite the southern gentleman. His heartfelt talk was an inspiration, and so is his victory.
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If the GOP actually nominates Yosemite John McCain, the question is not whether he will lose in November, but whether Obama’s triumph will top Roosevelt’s, Johnson’s, Nixon’s & Reagan’s. Thus though it would demand more imagination than Republicans are known to possess, that doesn’t change that nominating McCain would be, um, counterproductive for the party; & that accordingly an alternative should be found. Walter Jones, par example.
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Walter Sr. represented the First Congressional District and was a Democrat. Walter Jr. ran in the Democratic primary to succeed him after he died in 1992 but lost to Eva Clayton. Walter Jr. became a Republican and was elected in the Third District in 1994. Whether the district lines had been redrawn to include his father’s old constituents, I don’t know.
Certainly, a lot of Jones’s Republican critics don’t like his opposition to free trade. But the party, and even the economic conservative groups, have been fairly forgiving of congressmen from rural, manufacturing, and textile districts who vote against trade deals.
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Trade Treaties which are hundreds or even thousands of page in length are hardly about “Free Trade”, but rather managed trade.
Think about it: we replace Madison’s and Jefferson’s preferred means of revenue for the Federal Government, Tariffs, with Karl Marx’s means of revenue, the Graduated Income Tax, which hurts domestic manufacturers and producers. That’s not Free Trade! What we need is Free Trade between the States!
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Mr. Antle:
You are quite right about Walter Jones Sr. The old First Congressional District included
much of eastern North Carolina. Walter Jr. was elected from the (new) Third District, but
that district is a majority white district and includes a large percentage of former First
District voters. Walter Jr. had been a state senator from Greenville (as a conservative
Democrat), so he did have name recognition previously. But I do think his father’s legacy
helped him tremendously, certainly at first. I don’t wish to take anything away from him,
as he has been a superb congressman, someone we Tar Heels can really be proud of, but his
last name certainly did assist him....and I am grateful for that.
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A small note to my last posting: Congressman Jones actually lives in the town of
Farmville, a few miles to the west of Greenville. As a state legislator (State Senate)
he represented Pitt County in our General Assembly.
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Mr. Antle,
Lest I give the wrong impression, I did enjoy very much your essay which was very insightful. I hope you didn’t mind
me adding a bit about the politics of eastern North Carolina. The old First District (represented
for many years by Walter Jones Sr. as a Democrat) included much of far eastern and northeastern North Carolina. The (new) Third District includes several counties and portions of counties that were once in that district, as well as some counties and portions of counties that were in the old Third District. The present Third district is a
majority white district, and contains in their entirety the former First District counties of
Dare and Carteret (both tending Republican in recent years), Currituck, Hyde, and Tyrell.
Additionally, it includes large portions of the formerly First District counties of Pitt (Walter Jones’ county), Craven, and Beaufort. Counties from the old Third District that were added include: Onslow
(where Camp Lejeune is located), Lenoir (portion), Jones (portion), Wayne (portion), and
Wilson (portion). Walter Jones’ home county is Pitt, which he represented for years in the
North Carolina General Assembly as state senator. It was also the base for his father, Walter Sr.
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No, I don’t mind at all. Thanks for the additional background on the district.
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I am thrilled at Walter Jones’s victory and I honor the congressman’s courage. The
Iraq debacle, along with $ 3.50 + a gallon gasoline and the Bush blind eye to
Third World immigration, is wrecking the Republican Party. The Republicans need to
lose to start winning again.
As for Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, he was not defeated for his stance
on the Iraq War. Conservatives have been stumbling for years to find a conservative
to defeat Gilchrest on the Eastern Shore. Gilchrest was pro-abortion. He supported
DC statehood, the only Republican to do so. Gilchrest supported George HW Bush’s tax
increase of 1990. He supported the Brady Bill on gun control in 1994 in a rural
district filled with hunters and gun owners. In State Senator Andy Harris, conservatives
on the Shore finally found a candidate with money and brains to oust Mr. Gilchrest.
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