ANTI-TAX IN NAME ONLY

National Conservative Groups Warm Up to Schwarzenegger: Republican Leadership Council has endorsed him, and anti-tax groups are courting, hoping he'll take a definitive stance on their issue. (Ronald Brownstein, August 24, 2003, LA Times)

Although national conservative groups at first remained aloof from the bid to oust California Gov. Gray Davis, their leaders increasingly view the recall as an opportunity to generate momentum heading into next year's congressional and presidential voting.

"It will set a tone for next year," said Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a leading conservative strategist. [...]

But anti-tax and anti-spending conservative organizations are considering a role in the recall campaign. Schwarzenegger's camp has been negotiating for support from the Club for Growth, a leading conservative political action committee, as well as the large network of groups that revolve around Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform organization.

Norquist said that for Schwarzenegger, the key to gaining broader conservative support will be hardening his stand against new taxes. At a news conference Wednesday, Schwarzenegger came out strongly against taxes as a means to solve the state's budget shortfall but said he could not rule out tax increases to meet emergencies such as earthquakes.

Norquist is pressing Schwarzenegger to sign a pledge the group promotes that commits politicians not to support any net increase in taxes. "I think over the next week or so we'll see whether Arnold succeeds or fails in nailing down that he is not going to raise taxes," Norquist said. "Should he do that, then I think you will see a coming together around his campaign, and then you will see both Republicans and conservatives getting excited in California and nationally."

McClintock and Simon, until he withdrew from the race, had been criticizing Schwarzenegger for not signing the pledge. Schwarzenegger spokesman Sean Walsh seemed to denigrate the anti-tax pledge in an interview with Fox News last week, saying, "We're not going to play into any particular interest group who wants to just whipsaw us." [...]

Yet Steve Moore, president of the Club for Growth, said many conservatives were still in a "wait-and-see mode" about Schwarzenegger.

"We want to believe in this guy ... [but] he does have this one kind of annoying habit of trying to appease everybody, and I don't know if he can get away with that," Moore said.

Suppose, for the moment, that you grant Mr. Moore's position, that taxes should be the single issue upon which one bases his vote. Why then is it not necessary to do everythiong one can to defeat Cruz Bustamante, who is running on a pledge to hike taxes? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 24, 2003 6:49 AM