Last week, Americans for Prosperity held a “Health Care Town Hall” in Kalispell to oppose Medicaid expansion in Montana and single out a local lawmaker it says is not toeing the line by promising to oppose the legislation. The problem for the super PAC is Republican Rep. Frank Garner and a lot of his supporters showed up to confront the group’s spokesperson – and it was awkward.
AFP’s state director was greeted with laughing and booing as he tried to explain why he had visited Kalispell, and why the group had targeted Garner for not signing a pledge to oppose Medicaid expansion in Montana. Garner, who found out about the meeting through a third party and drove several hours from Helena to attend it, explained that he “won’t sign a pledge card for or against any issue.”
Why should he? They’re stupid. If voters don’t like how Garner performs, they can choose to send someone else to Helena. If a candidate asked for my advice, which they won’t, I would discourage them from signing any pledge, purity test or blanket statement from political parties, lobbyists, unions or whoever else might come calling. In fact, I’m more wary of people who fill out these things because elected officials really have no business making promises to anyone except those who elected them.
This latest pledge reminds me of the purity test the Montana Conservative Alliance circulated to candidates in the run-up to previous Legislatures. The chairman of the group would use the highly unscientific conservative index rating to decide who is truly Republican and who is a dreaded RINO (Republican in Name Only) and should be purged from the party. One year, more than 20 GOP candidates were deemed too liberal and at least 30 ignored the survey altogether. The only surprising result was that anyone filled it out at all.
These pledges often arise on the national level during presidential election years. Candidates are asked to vow to never raise taxes, never cut pensions, never restrict or support abortions. If they sign, they hope that said group wouldn’t spend a bunch of money opposing their respective campaigns. It’s like a legal form of blackmail and plenty of politicians are duped by it.
An especially famous pledge is the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” from Grover Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform. Lots of lawmakers sign this – which somehow holds incredible clout – and it counts as a promise to never raise taxes. If a politician wants to keep taxes low, he or she has my vote, but I’d prefer if they kept their word to me instead of a group based in Washington, D.C.
Norquist’s anti-tax pledge caused a stir in 2012 when Republicans, with a fiscal cliff looming, began reading the fine print to see if letting Bush-era tax cuts expire would violate the agreement. Norquist had to clarify his group’s positions on the matter. Again, those elected officials should have instead asked those people they are paid to represent. Just a thought.
In recent years, these pledges have fallen out of favor. So groups such as AFP, which is backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, have decided if you don’t make promises to them, they’re going to attack you with various mailers and hold town halls to skewer you as they see fit.
Perhaps this is the best way for candidates to fight back. In Garner’s case, he found out about the meeting, showed up with supporters, debated AFP’s hired gun and reiterated to the audience that he wouldn’t make any promises to anyone but them. And he shouldn’t.
If a politician breaks a pledge to voters, that’s a fireable offense. But actually making a pen-to-paper promise to an out-of-state super PAC is not much better.