Some GOP flee from Bush, but not his money

updated 5:44 a.m. ET March 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - Many worried Republicans on the ballot in November have been pushing away from the White House, not wanting to be dragged under by President Bush’s sinking approval ratings and growing anxiety over Iraq.

That doesn’t mean they’re also fleeing his cash offerings, however.

Despite approval ratings in the mid-to-upper 30s, Bush remains the nation’s most successful fundraiser. Vice President Dick Cheney, whose poll numbers are even lower than Bush’s, is not far behind. Both have raised tens of millions of dollars for GOP congressional and gubernatorial candidates running in this year’s midterm elections.

Even as some Republicans are becoming increasingly defiant on a range of issues, they’re still lining up dutifully for the president’s campaign dollars.

“I would be shocked if a legitimate Republican candidate, not just a fringe candidate, who got word that the president was coming to do a fundraiser said, ‘no, don’t come to my district,”’ said GOP consultant Rich Galen.

That said, Republican candidates don’t want to be forced off message by such a visit and “have to spend the next two or three days talking about the president’s policies ... or what happened yesterday in Ramadi (Iraq),” Galen said.

Fancy footwork
It has resulted in some fancy GOP footwork as candidates in tight races step away from Bush and Cheney on divisive issues but dance toward them when the subject is money.

Bush has scheduled fundraisers Friday for Rep. Mike Sodrel of Indiana at The Murat Centre in Indianapolis and for Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., at a private residence in the Pittsburgh area.

He’s doing another one at a Washington hotel on Monday for Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., where $1,000 will get you in the door, and $10,000 in combined contributions from others will get you a “photo opportunity with the president,” according to an invitation.

Bush and Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, are not scheduled to appear together publicly on Friday. Santorum, trailing Democrat Bob Casey in polls, broke with Bush on a plan to have an Arab company based in Dubai run terminals at some U.S. ports and has raised concerns about the administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq.

When Bush went to Cleveland earlier in the week to make a major speech on Iraq, there was a noticeable absence of top Ohio Republicans, including Sen. Mike DeWine, who is locked in a tight re-election race.

Cheney went to Newark, N.J., earlier in the week to help raise $400,000 for New Jersey GOP Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. But Kean showed up 15 minutes after Cheney left. Kean said he got stuck in traffic, a claim critics questioned based on the route he took.

Michael Steele, the GOP Senate candidate in Maryland, skipped Bush’s speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in November, but joined the president later at a $500,000 fundraiser. Last month, GOP Senate candidate Mark Kennedy in Minnesota did not attend an appearance by Bush at a 3M Corp. plant outside Minneapolis, but joined him later at a fundraiser.

At a local GOP gathering in Nevada last weekend, Republican Sen. John Ensign tied himself to Ronald Reagan rather than Bush, saying spending under the Bush administration “has upset me.”

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who also attended the gathering, told reporters: “I believe the president has his agenda, his focus. I have mine. I will always run on mine.”

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