Armey Defends Checklist of Principles for GOP Candidates

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a leader among conservatives vying to set the direction of the Republican party, said a 10-point checklist being proposed to determine whether a candidate merits GOP support is "not a litmus test" but an effort to ensure the party's ability to win future elections by presenting a true alternative.

"If the Republican Party is going to win any future elections, it has to be presented as an alternative to the Democrat Party's fiscal spending," Armey said on CBS' Face the Nation. "And in fact, it's a very reasonable thing to say, if you want the support of the Republican Party, demonstrate some allegiance to the primary positions taken by the party."

The checklist was proposed by conservative Indiana Republican James Bopp Jr. Under Bopp's resolution, which will be presented at the Republican National Committee winter meeting early next year, candidates would have to agree with at least seven of the ten points to get RNC funding or support.

Armey said "if you read the list, at least five of the 10 are right at the center stage -- center post of the big 10 of American politics today, fiscal conservatism."

Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie acknowledged that "if you look at those 10 things that a Republican running in a primary for Congress against another Republican, the Republican who agrees with nine out of, you know, those 10 will beat the Republican who agrees with seven out of those 10."

But Gillespie expressed concern that use of the checklist to determine who merited support "would be in the best interest of the party at the end of the day."

"The question for me is...as a former chairman ... what if you have a Republican who agrees with seven out of those ten things running against a Democrat who agrees with zero out of those ten things and you want to put some money into a race to try to win back the House and you're constrained from doing that?" Gillespie said, also on CBS.

New York Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of an upstate New York congressional race after Armey and other activists lined up behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, said on the show that "I would have been at seven out of 10 on the list."

"I think you've got to look at (my) predecessor," Scozzafava said. "John McHugh served this district very well. He was a moderate. Some of the positions that I got criticized for taking were positions that John already had. I think it's important that sometimes there are regional differences even as Mr. Armey represented Texas. There are certain things that he voted against that are right on the litmus test, the 10 steps."

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Here is the text of the proposed RNC resolution:

RNC RESOLUTION ON FINANCIAL
SUPPORT OF CANDIDATES

Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed that the Republican Party should support and espouse conservative principles and public policies; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan also believed the Republican Party should welcome those with diverse views; and

WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan believed, as a result, that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies and Republican solidarity in opposition to Obama's socialist agenda is necessary to preserve the security of our country, our economic and political freedoms, and our way of life; and

WHEREAS, Republican faithfulness to its conservative principles and public policies is necessary to restore the trust of the American people in the Republican Party and to lead to Republican electoral victories; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee shares President Ronald Reagan's belief that the Republican Party should espouse conservative principles and public policies and welcome persons of diverse views; and

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee desires to implement President Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates; and

WHEREAS, in addition to supporting candidates, the Republican National Committee provides financial support for Republican state and local parties for party building and federal election activities, which benefit all candidates and is not affected by this resolution; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee; and be further

RESOLVED, that upon the approval of this resolution the Republican National Committee shall deliver a copy of this resolution to each of Republican members of Congress, all Republican candidates for Congress, as they become known, and to each Republican state and territorial party office.

Chief Sponsor:

James Bopp, Jr. NCM IN

Sponsors:

Donna Cain NCW OR
Cindy Costa NCW SC
Demetra Demonte NCW IL
Peggy Lambert NCW TN
Carolyn McLarty NCW OK
Pete Rickets NCM NE
Steve Scheffler NCM IA
Helen Van Etten NCW KA
Solomon Yue NCM OR