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Brownback to End Presidential Bid Today

The Kansas City Star logo d

Posted on Thu, Oct. 18, 2007
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN and STEVE KRASKE

WASHINGTON | On the surface, Sam Brownback looked to be everything a conservative voter could want.

Anti-abortion. Tight with money. Anti-cloning. Distance from the White House on the war. Proud man of faith.

That all translated into a formidable political presence in Kansas, but not on the presidential campaign trail. With 77 days before the first votes are cast in Iowa, Brownback aides acknowledged that the two-term senator formally will end his campaign today in Topeka.

“I’m a little mystified,” said University of Kansas political scientist Burdett Loomis. “It looks on the surface like he was a perfect fit for that social conservative niche that everyone is still scrambling to fill.”

But, he added, one key for a politician is finding the ability to connect with voters. “And Sam somehow didn’t connect.”

Nor did he connect with the check writers.

Brownback’s withdrawal comes just days after a disappointing third-quarter report on his campaign’s finances. Since July, he’d raised under $1 million, paltry compared to the $18 million and $13 million raised by Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson respectively.

While many contenders had millions in cash on hand for the primary push, Brownback reported less than $100,000.

His poll numbers were no better. After months tramping across Iowa, he was stuck at 4 percent. A CNN poll this week gave him 1 percent of the national Republican vote.

“It’s just a crowded field,” said Kansas GOP chairman Kris Kobach. “It makes it very difficult for candidates without either a huge amount of money in the bank or very high national name ID to leap to the front of the pack.”

A lack of charisma on the stump and poor name identification didn’t help. Neither did his immigration stance.

The 51-year-old senator’s moderate approach to illegal immigrants put him at odds with most Republican primary voters who favor a tougher policy.

In an interview with The Kansas City Star Wednesday before his decision became known, Brownback talked about the frustrations.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I’m just not getting the traction. We’ve not been able to raise money.

“I thought we’d be able to consolidate the social conservatives early on and be able to build out to economic conservatives and raise money off of that base,” Brownback said. “We’ve not been able to consolidate the social conservatives at all.”

While his credentials among the religious right were impeccable, Brownback was hampered by a widespread belief that he could not win.

And he was not the only one fighting to fill the niche. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, is more electrifying on the stump. Brownback’s style is more soft-spoken and thoughtful.

The writing was on the wall in August when Brownback finished behind Huckabee in the Iowa straw poll. It was by only a single point, but the surprising finish catapulted Huckabee onto magazine covers and Sunday morning news programs.

Huckabee is climbing in the Iowa polls. His latest number was 12 percent, up from 8 percent in late September and enough to be nipping at the heels of the second-place Rudy Giuliani. Mitt Romney, after running thousands of ads, has more than double their numbers.

Just last week, Brownback lowered his goals to fourth in Iowa, despite the adage that there are only three tickets out of the state. With the primaries crowding up the calendar — Iowa Republicans will caucus on Jan. 3 — there was even less time for candidates to recover from a poor showing there.

“There’s no question that Senator Brownback worked hard to get his message out, but it just proved too difficult a field for him to achieve a breakthrough,” said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse.

Brownback has pledged to limit himself to two full terms in the Senate and won’t run again in 2010. The governor’s job will open that same year because Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is limited by law to two terms, leading to speculation that Brownback might try for that job.

Even those close to Brownback aren’t sure what’s next.

“He told me on the phone this morning he’s in the fight for the long run,” his friend and Iowa ally Chuck Hurley said. “He’s a willing, humble servant. He’s not a quitter.”