“If you can’t take their money and vote against them, you shouldn’t be in this business.” California House Speaker Jesse Unruh
In the 1972 Presidential primaries, much of the attention was on the cacophonous Democratic field. But Richard Nixon was facing two challengers within his own party, one from the left, and one from the right. Paul McCloskey and John Ashbrook were both members of the House. Both would suffer electoral ramifications as a result of their quixotic bids but neither fatal, as both manged to serve an additional decade in the House prior to undertaking Senate candidacies in 1982. Nixon himself would say later that though McCloskey or Ashbrook never had a chance, “a–holes like that caused me some problems.”
McCloskey and Ashbrook’s high point of their challenge to Nixon was the New Hampshire primary, as Nixon surrendered a third of the vote to the two. McCloskey won 20%, and Nixon 10%. Nixon would exceed 80% in nearly every other primary.
McCloskey’s opposition to Nixon stemmed from his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was a Korean vet but research had made him very much opposed to the Vietnam War, calling it “one of the most tragic mistakes that we ever made” (McCloskey was actually the first member of Congress to call for repeal of the Tonkin Gulf resolution). He cited, “the two men I fought under in Korea, General MacArthur and General Ridgeway” who espoused the view, “never again fight a land war on the Asian continent; it is not a place for Americans.”
McCloskey, whom people would call “Pete”, had an interesting electoral history. When a seat opened up in 1967, his main rival was Shirley Temple Black, and she ran to his right on Vietnam. Actually, it’s not hard to see how she’d be to his right on virtually everything. In his early tenure, McCloskey backed busing, corporate campaign limits, co-chaired Earth Day, and opposed strip mining, school prayer and the Cambodia bombings. Consequently, from the beginning to the end of his Congressional career, he’d be walking on eggshells in his primaries. In 1968, McCloskey was renominated with just 53% and 60% in 1970.
McCloskey mounted his challenge against Nixon because he wanted to give “truth a chance.” He noted having served under
But he also made the friends in high places argument, condemning the administration for opposing dairy subsidies, until a few well connected people began contributing to the RNC. McCloskey called “restoration of faith the most important goal of the campaign.”
After the loss, McCloskey continued to struggle. Redistricting had carved up much of his district, but he found a nearby, more Republican one to make his race. But he may have alienated voters by changing his registration to “decline to state.” Still, he beat two primary foes with 55%, and the general election with the same margin against an attorney named James Stewart. But he’d show no signs of abandoning his maverick ways, backing federal funding of abortion, the creation of the Consumer Protection Agency, and limiting the production of the B-1 bomber. In the 1974 primary, he came within 2% of defeat (50-48%). But he recovered after that. And set his sights on the Senate. The primary was heavy with GOP heavyweights (Pete Wilson, Barry Goldwater Sr, Maureen Reagan, etc), and McCloskey garnered just 8%.
In 2006, McCloskey at 78 attempted a comeback, challenging conservative Republican Richard Pombo in the primary. Pombo chaired the House Resources Committee, and had a bullet on his back from environmental groups. He also was a staunch social conservative. McCloskey called himself, “a Republican since 1948, before Pombo was born. But I’m ashamed of what my party has become, and to me, Pombo represents the very worst of it.” His campaign was launched from a motor home, which he called the Real Republican Voters Express. When he lost, McCloskey endorsed Democrat Jerry McNerney who went on to beat Pombo. The following year, he announced he was leaving the Republican Party.
McCloskey during his 2006 comeback attempt (Photo by Lance Iverson, San Francisco Chronicle)
Ashbrook’s modus operendi for challenging Nixon was anger over his position on two fronts. The “Wage and Price” controls and his opening up relations with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, both on which he thought Nixon was straying too far from the right. But he also hit him on the EPA and welfare.
A web-site devoted to Ashbrook’s life calls him” big blond with a ready grin and friendly manner–was a natural-born politician.” Already a legislator, he won a heavily Republican Congressional seat in Ohio in 1960, succeeding his father who had retired. During that race, he spoke of “unbridled national power with a resultant loss of individual freedom and local autonomy.” In office, his pursuit of conservatism led him to take leadership in a what’s what of conservative organizations, including a chairmanship of the Young Republican National Federation, becoming one of the founders of the Conservative Victory Fund. He would had been ranking member of the House Internal Security Committee (a descendant of the Committee on Un-American Activities) when it was abolished. In his final term, was the top Republican on Education and Labor.
While Ashbrook’s view toward even moderate Republicans was unambiguous (“the only things that you find in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead skunks”), he was not disliked. Paul Simon, the Illinois Democrat who was almost as liberal as Ashbrook conservative, said in his book that he enjoyed working with him. But his view of Nixon did not improve. He said as Watergate mounted “we kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but then we realized he was a centipede.”
After folding his Presidential bid, Ashbrook couldn’t quite glide to re-election the way he had done so previously. His 57% in 1972 was down, but not necessarily in the danger zone. But his 53% against an underfunded foe two years later was. By ’76, Ashbrook was back to 57% but, adding insult to injury, saw his committee abolished. He then became ranking Republican on the Education Committee. He was the only Ohian to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and in later years, spoke against the holiday observing Martin Luther King’s birthday. The Almanac of American Politics 1982 called his career “almost a catalogue of lost causes.”
But Ashbrook would go after Nixon one last time – on Watergate, as he became the first House Republican to call for Nixon to step down.
In the spring of 1982, Ashbrook had filed to challenge Howard Metzenbaum for his Senate seat that fall and seemed likely to capture the GOP nomination. In March, he collapsed, as a result of what aides said was exhaustion. But a month later, he suddenly died. A hemorrhage was listed as the cause.