Cole Still King at Republican Congressional Committee

By Jonathan Allen, CQ Staff Thu May 15, 8:25 PM ET

The head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) appears to have kept his footing -- at least for now -- despite a push by some colleagues to sack him after the latest in a string of special election losses for the GOP.

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole has come under intense fire for his management of House Republicans' campaign fundraising and strategy organization during a rough political period for the GOP. On Tuesday, Democrats won the Republican-leaning northern Mississippi 1st district left open when Roger Wicker was appointed Senator, adding to a list of pickups that included the district of former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the Baton Rouge-based district long held by former Lousiana Rep. Richard Baker.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio has been among Cole's harshest critics during his tenure at the NRCC, but Boehner, who could also take the fall if the GOP is routed at the polls in November, is not the only voice in a chorus of complaints.

"Some people have said to Tom 'It's time to submit your resignation,'" said Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who is close to Boehner. "I think we need a change."

But several Republicans said Cole should not be turned into a scapegoat for a party that has seen its brand badly damaged in recent years and has had trouble competing with Democrats at almost every level of fundraising.

"I support Tom Cole," said former NRCC Chairman Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., who circulated a 20-page memo on GOP strategy this week. "The problems are much larger than the NRCC."

A CBS News/New York Times poll taken last month found that Democrats beat Republicans 52 percent to 30 percent on the question of whether voters would vote for the Democratic or Republican congressional candidate if the election were held that day.

Davis has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Cole should the current chairman step down, but Davis said that will not happen.

"The leadership would never want me to do that," said Davis, whose frank assessments of his party's weaknesses have sometimes rubbed colleagues the wrong way.

Another possible successor told a California political Website on Thursday that Republicans should keep Cole in place.

"I don't think that you change midstream. You create a strategy and you play out the plan. Does the plan have to adapt? Yeah the plan has to adapt. I think the strength Cole -- he's been in the foxhole before," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who has been tasked with chairing the GOP's Platform Committee at the Republican National Convention in September.

Cole is in a better position now than he was earlier in the week to withstand efforts to knock him from the job, said a senior GOP aide.

"There is a huge push going on," the aide said. "The longer it's a push and not an action, the harder it's going to be."