By Matt Snyder
MERCER COUNTY — A congressional candidate’s meet-and-greet Thursday night highlighted some of the tensions between Tea Party activists and the Republican Party leaders.
About 18 people popped in at Panera Bread, Hermitage, to hear what Clayton W. Grabb had to say. He’s one of the half dozen Republican hopefuls for the 3rd District Congressional seat, held by U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, D-3rd District.
Grabb made a bread-and-butter conservative address calling for cutting government programs, growing jobs through tax cuts, and opposing health care reform efforts by Democrats. A participant in several Tea Party events, Grabb promised to bring conservative values back to the Republican Party.
David O. King, Mercer County’s Republican party chair, took issue with that. He said he’s been active locally for 20 years and wasn’t aware their values had changed. He also asked why more Tea Party activists can’t swing by the Republican headquarters in Mercer.
Grabb initially said that Republicans had swung too far toward the center, which King said he “doesn’t believe.”
Several members of the audience, who said they attended Tea Party rallies, took issue with that. They cited the 2008 presidential run of Sen. John McCain and last year’s House race in New York in which party leaders chose liberal Dede Scozzafova as their nominee. Conservative opposition to that choice sunk Scozzafova’s campaign and highlighted the gulf between party leaders and rank-and-file voters.
Grabb cited those candidates and Arlen Specter as failures of the national leadership to select conservative Republican candidates.
King seemed to get along with that statement more, and he added that anyone interested in coming by would be welcomed at county party headquarters.
King made appearances at Grabb’s meet-and-greet and a campaign announcement earlier Thursday by Mike Kelly, a Butler car dealership owner who kicked off his campaign in Mercer County at Beans on Broad in Grove City.
King said the local Republican leaders plans to let the primary play out among the various candidates. They plan to get behind whoever wins.
The six Republicans who have announced plans to run so far have all sounded off on similar issues. All of them come from private enterprises, and none have much prior political experience, with the exception of Kelly serving on a school board and Butler city council.
Involved in business, sales, health care, and insurance, the candidates come overwhelmingly from the private sector, many still putting the spit and polish on their campaigns.
They’ve come out in stern opposition to high deficits, and most have struck a populist stance of sending fresh, citizen-politicians to Washington. Grabb, for instance, called Thursday for term limits and restrictions on all money and gifts from lobbyists.
He cited rules in his own sales profession that prevent him from leaving a “10-cent pen” behind or taking his clients out to dinners. He said Washington, D.C., has to play by the same rules.
Besides Kelly and Grabb, the declared candidates are: Steven M. Fisher, 52, Cochranton, a health insurance salesman; Ed Franz, 48, Conneautville, an hourly worker at the General Electric plant in Erie; Dr. Tom Trevorrow, an Erie ophthalmologist; and Paul Huber, a Meadville businessman.
