Stivers moves and grooves with DC Republicans

WASHINGTON - If Steve Stivers isn’t the considered the hottest thing in National Republican circles these days, he’s pretty close.

“This guy is a rock star,” U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in an interview earlier this week at Washington’s Capitol Hill Club as Stivers walked by.

Stivers, the Republican nominee in Ohio’s 15th Congressional District, wrapped up a Washington trip on Thursday. But Stivers will be back soon – next week, in fact.

Stivers, who Republicans tout as one of their top recruits of the cycle, will be the beneficiary of a July 24 reception hosted by U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) at the Capitol Hill Club. House Minority Leader John Boehner is also slated to attend the event, which Upton is putting on through his TRUST Political Action Committee.

The Ohio Republican said in a telephone interview Thursday that he would also hold a fundraising event geared at the health care industry.

Republicans are placing plenty of stock in Stivers, a state Senator and Iraq veteran who is running for the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus). Facing off against Stivers is Mary Jo Kilroy, the Democratic Franklin County Commissioner who narrowly lost a 2006 battle with Pryce.

Maintaining the seat won’t be easy for Republicans. For the last few years, the Columbus-area seat has been trending Democratic, giving George Bush 52 percent in 2000 but only 50 percent in 2004. Last cycle, Kilroy spent just south of $3 million trying to claim the seat Pryce had occupied for seven terms.

Republicans argue that Stivers’ personal history and experience winning a state legislative seat gives them a shot.

"Steve Stivers is the total package. He accurately reflects the interests and values of the district he seeks to represent, has a compelling biography, and he continues to outperform his out of touch opponent on every level," said National Republican Congressional Campaign spokesman Ken Spain.

What is also encouraging to national Republicans, who have seen their fundraising pale in comparison to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is Stivers’ fundraising performance. Since announcing he would run for the seat in November, the Upper Arlington Republican has raised over $1.2 million for the effort.

Republicans led by Boehner approached Stivers to run for the seat immediately following Pryce’s retirement announcement in August. Stivers initially rebuffed the overtures. His fall announcement that he would run placated party leaders who feared the seat would fall into Democratic hands.

“I think that Steve Stivers…has sort of pulled this race back into the competitive column,” said Nathan Gonzales, an analyst for the Rothenberg Political Report.

Stivers' schedule this week was packed. On Wednesday he was the beneficiary of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s ROMP (Regain Our Majority Program) fundraising event. He also had a dinner event with the Young Guns, a group of House members who are supporting House candidates around the country. Joining Stivers at the dinner was Texas 22nd Congressional District candidate Pete Olson and Pennsylvania 10th Congressional District candidate Chris Hackett, two other high-profile Republican recruits.

On Thursday, Stivers also briefly met with Grover Norquist, the influential president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.

Stivers’ battle with Kilroy is expected to be highly competitive. “I think this is going to be a dog fight,” said Gonzales, the political analyst.

While Democrats say they have opportunity to brand Stivers as an insider and focus on his work as a onetime lobbyist for the former Bank One, Republicans note that Kilroy emerged from the 2006 contest with relatively high negatives.

“She ran a tough race that was really nasty and sometimes that blows back at you,” said Stivers.

On Thursday, Democrats laughed off Stivers’ Washington jaunt.

“Of course a career lobbyist like Steve Stivers…would be a big hit with President Bush, Dick Cheney, and their loyalists in Washington,” said Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.