Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
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Attendees vote in the CPAC 2015 Straw Poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference.(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Conservative activists capped their annual conference Saturday broadly agreeing they need to elect one of their own to the presidency in 2016, but disputing the best way to go about it.
Some delegates to the Conservative Political Action Conference said Republicans should nominate a true believer, someone who can repeal health care, shrink the size of the federal government, and aggressively wage war on the so-called Islamic State militant group.
Others agreed on the need for a conservative nominee, but said the GOP needs to reach out to moderates who may hold different views on immigration, education, and foreign policy, and will be needed to win the presidential vote in 2016.
"I am 60% confident right now," said attendee Brian Long in-between conference sessions. "I'd like to say I'm 80% confident."
Organizers planned to end the four-day event late Saturday by announcing the results of the annual straw poll. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a likely White House aspirant in 2016, has won the poll two straight years.
As CPAC members swapped stories and handed out buttons and pamphlets in the hallways, the long-time tension between "real conservatives" and "establishment Republicans" surfaced repeatedly.
It could be seen in the reactions to one prospective candidate in particular: Jeb Bush.
While some CPAC members applauded Bush's call for "reform" conservatism, others described the former Florida governor as a dreaded RINO — Republican In Name Only. "He should be a Democrat," said Christmas Simon, a public speaker from Yorba Linda, Calif.
Noelani Bonifacio, 26, a legislative aide to a state senator in Hawaii, said conservatives fight each other too much. Bonifacio said she knows people who backed former Texas congressman Ron Paul during the 2012 Republican primaries, then refused to vote for eventual nominee Mitt Romney in the general election.
"We have a lot of disagreements — which is good — but I think we spend too much time attacking each other," said Bonifacio, who voted for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the straw poll. "We should be attacking Democrats."
Bonifacio said Bush "is not my first choice," but she would vote for him in the general if he is the nominee because "he is better than the alternative."
Not everyone at CPAC agreed. Some cited Bush's support of a pathway to citizenship for migrants who are in the country illegally. Others criticized his support of education standards known as "Common Core."
Simon — who cast her straw vote for "hard core conservative" Ted Cruz, the Texas senator — said voters want people who "really stand firm on what they believe in."
There also the fact that the last two Republican presidents were named Bush.
"The only dynasty that I like is the Duck Dynasty," said radio talk show host Mark Levin during a CPAC session Saturday, a reference to the television program featuring a family headed by Phil Robertson, a religious conservative who spoke here Friday.
CPAC members — some of whom spent as much time attacking the new Republican Congress as President Obama — gravitated toward prospective candidates who say they want to challenge the GOP establishment in Washington.
That group includes Paul, Cruz, and Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.
Long, 68, a regional economist from Kalamazoo, Mich., said Republicans need to attract people who rarely vote, just as the Democratic turnout machine helped elect Obama twice. "We have to reach out to conservative voters who stay at home when they see a candidate who does not move them," he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, watched the proceedings at CPAC with pleasure, saying conservatives are pushing the Republicans too far to the right to win a general election.
Jesse Lehrich, spokesman for a Democratic opposition research organization called American Bridge, noted "the continued divide between the conservative and establishment wings of the party," exemplified by the "animosity" toward Bush. He said that "earning the acceptance of Republican voters is incompatible with being a viable candidate in a national election."
Republicans said the prospect of a "third Obama term" — possibly in the form of Hillary Clinton — will convince most Americans to support a conservative in 2016.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said the different types of conservatives — social, economic, and national security — agree more than they disagree. They also share one overarching goal, he said: The desire to win after two terms of Obama.
"They want to win," Schlapp said. "They are ready to win."
There are months to go before any Republican caucus or primary votes are cast. But by the time CPAC next gathers in March 2016, the identity of the Republican nominee may be known.
Getting there involves a process, said Roman Buhler, director of a Virginia-based organization called the Madison Coalition.
"What's happening here," he said, "is the beginning stage of a really important debate to determine what it takes to bring new leadership to the country."
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