County resident, GOP consultant Igoe says party bloody, unbowed

Friday, Jan. 19, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo Courtesy of Kevin Igoe Republican campaign consultant Kevin Igoe with then-Rep. and former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. when Igoe was Executive Director of the Maryland Republican Party in the early 1990s. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Nationally, the 2006 elections placed Democrats in control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives; in Maryland, a Democrat, Martin O’Malley, was elected governor.

‘‘It was a very tough year. You see that there was a type of wave that we could not counteract at the state or local level,” Igoe said at a presentation to the Republican Women Leaders of Calvert in Dunkirk on Monday, Jan. 8.

The backlash against the Republicans was fueled mainly by resentment about the war in Iraq, according to Igoe, as well as a lethargic GOP base.

‘‘Anybody who was surprised wasn’t paying attention. This was a long time in coming. ... It was, in many ways, a perfect storm for the Democrats,” Igoe said.

Republicans could be shut out of power for a while because of the current strength of the Maryland Democrats.

‘‘They can govern without us, quite frankly,” Igoe said.

However, Igoe urged Republicans not to despair, saying that the GOP had faced similar challenges in the past and had always recovered, as in 2002, when Robert Ehrlich (R) was elected governor and other Republicans were elected to the state legislature.

To regain its appeal to voters, Igoe urged the GOP to return to its traditional message of personal responsibility. He also urged candidates to state their positions simply and repetitively and to pay close attention to the language they use. Voters are busy, have short attention spans and are easily confused, Igoe said, so campaigns must state their positions simply and compellingly in order to be remembered.

‘‘That’s why you’ve got to say the same thing over and over and over, and say it in a way that’s memorable to a young father ... and relevant to [his] daily life,” Igoe said.

Igoe also encouraged the GOP to be more ruthless in its use of power if it regains it, attributing some of the Republicans’ current problems to Ehrlich’s attempts at bipartisanship.

Republicans can suffer from ‘‘a failure to understand how to use power. [Democratic President of the Maryland Senate Thomas V.] Mike Miller [Jr.] never had that problem. He knows how to use it,” Igoe said.

Patt Parker, the president of the Maryland Federation of Republican Women, thought Igoe ‘‘was right on the money.” She agrees that the GOP’s recent defeats were only a temporary setback.

‘‘From a basic grassroots perspective we’re taking off and we’ve just got a lot of energy moving forward. ... I think we are stronger because we have more volunteers at the grassroots level and I think people have a better understanding of the challenges ahead of them. ... I think we’ve got some leadership in the party structure that has expanded and they are ready to take on the challenges of the day,” Parker said.

Igoe himself is also familiar with the intricacies of power, having worked as a Republican strategist and consultant for decades.

Igoe was drawn to the Republican Party ‘‘a long time ago, based on free enterprise, individual responsibility and smaller government. ... I got my start in politics working as a volunteer in campaigns in my hometown, and in Buffalo, N.Y. Local, state legislative races, stuff like that,” Igoe said in an interview.

Since then, Igoe has held a myriad of high positions in the GOP, including as a legislative affairs specialist for the Reagan administration, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party in the early 1990s, two stints as a staffer on Capitol Hill, and political director for Ellen Sauerbrey’s unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1994.

Igoe ran for U.S. Congress in 1980 for Maryland’s fifth district, the seat currently occupied by Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) that includes Southern Maryland as well as parts of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties.

While he said he did not do well in that race, he garnered valuable lessons from the experience, especially about the importance of money in modern politics.

Money has become steadily more important in politics as the number of voters increases.

‘‘I think each cycle, you see the cost of races is going up, and the need for money is more imperative. It’s important, as the size of the electorate increases, that you have to be able to talk to people through mass communication. You have to have the money to talk to people through television, the radio, mass mailings. ... You can win with money and no door-to-door [campaigning], but you can’t win a race with only door-to-door.

‘‘The best scenario is to have a combination of the two because usually the way it will work is your ability to do mass communication will get you into a competitive race. Your grassroots will put you over the top,” Igoe said.

Igoe founded a political consulting firm about 12 years ago and moved it to Calvert County in 2000, he said.

He was the consultant for Ron Miller’s unsuccessful bid to replace Mike Miller in the state Senate.

‘‘He was responsible for helping us to shape our message, he was involved with media and communications, he advised us on a wide variety of political issues. He had a lot of experience that was relevant,” Ron Miller, who was recently named the Calvert County Republican Central Committee communications director, said.

Igoe’s experience also benefits the GOP as a whole, Miller said.

‘‘I think he provides a history and context for the GOP in Maryland we’ve been through quite a bit, some ups and downs throughout the years. There haven’t been many who have been able to look at the history of Maryland politics for the GOP and characterize and analyze them as he has,” Miller said.

As a consultant he worked in Iowa on Lamar Alexander’s brief campaign for president in 2000.

Soon afterwards, he was tapped by George W. Bush’s first campaign to help with the recount effort in Florida. Alongside a Democratic counterpart, Igoe scrutinized individual ballots in Broward County, deciding which votes would be accepted and which would be contested by the Bush campaign.

‘‘That was fun,” Igoe said.

While he is dismayed by the currently flagging fortunes of his party, Igoe is confident that they will soon revive.

‘‘Yeah, I definitely do. I think this was pretty much an aberration here. We’re going to have to focus on a message, not be all over the place on too many different areas. I think we’re going to have to see how our Democratic friends do in governing. If they revert to their natural tendency of high taxes, big government, that will help. ... [We need to] show that our principles hit home to their [voters’] daily lives,” Igoe said.

E-mail Erica Mitrano at emitrano@somdnews.com.