The 2016 GOP field is starting to look like a pro wrestling Royal Rumble, with many of the candidates beginning to square off in their own private fights with each other, all while keeping an eye on the big prize of the nomination belt.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are trading punches over the health of Social Security, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is trying to egg Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker into a slap-fight over their respective plans to replace Obamacare.
And then there’s former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who’s standing toe-to-toe with businessman Donald Trump in the middle of the ring, throwing haymakers on immigration and any other issue they can think of.
“There are a lot of mini-primaries going on,” said John Brabender, a senior adviser to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has gone after Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas over the issue of immigration.
It’s not unusual for one-on-one fights to break out in primaries, but this year’s crowded field is shaping up to have more of them than usual. Analysts said candidates are trying to boost their own stature and to winnow the field by winning the one-on-ones, and it’s all been fueled by the rise of Mr. Trump, who’s absorbed most of the oxygen since his June campaign announcement, making it hard to grab the attention of donors and voters.
The solution is to pick a fight and take it public.
“They are all looking to move up a class,” said Kevin Sheridan, a GOP strategist. “The calculation is, ID the candidate one or two tiers above you and create a moment.
“Unfortunately, for the lower-tier candidates, so long as you have a George ’The Animal’ Steel candidate running around eating turnbuckles, you’re not going to get much of a chance to do that,” Mr. Sheridan said, likening Mr. Trump to the former professional wrestler, who was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005.
In pro wrestling, the Royal Rumble is a melee involving dozens of fighters, with the last man standing declared the winner. The matches quickly turn into smaller fights, and as wrestlers get eliminated they begin to turn back to the main battle.
There’s also usually a fan favorite who faces an outsize share of attacks, and in the campaign so far, that role has been played by Mr. Trump, who Iowa State University political scientist Steffen Schmidt called a “political Godzilla.”
“Reality TV is a brutal and nasty environment full of yelling, pushing and shoving,” Mr. Schmidt said. “’The Apprentice’ is mild compared to some of the edgier shows, but Trump is bringing the full force of that world of reality TV to politics. He seems to wants to say ’You’re fired!’ to each of his GOP contenders.”
Mr. Schmidt said the Trump factor has made the campaign “an exciting, dramatic, sizzling-hot and nasty political season.”
One of the fights going on around Mr. Trump is the Christie-Huckabee tussle, which could be the most substantive — and civil. The two are battling over whether Social Security’s benefits need to be limited and the retirement age raised in order to save the program — Mr. Christie’s stance — or whether the government would be breaking a promise if it made changes.
Mr. Christie told voters in New Hampshire that he will keep the debate cordial as long as others do the same, and said that Mr. Huckabee thanked him in the opening debate for being so cordial when they disagreed over the future of Social Security.
“I’ve known Mike for a while, and I said ’Mike, if you are civilized with me, I will be civilized with you.’ And that’s the way it should be,” Mr. Christie said.
But Mr. Christie said he will be tougher on those he thinks don’t deserve it — which he said explained the harsh exchange he had with Sen. Rand Paul in the first GOP debate over the government’s phone-snooping program.
“Senator Paul decided to be uncivilized,” Mr. Christie said.
Then there’s Mr. Santorum, languishing in the polls, who’s been eyeing Mr. Cruz’s supporters, particularly on immigration. Mr. Santorum said that Mr. Cruz is soft on the issue, criticizing his support of more work visas for highly skilled workers.
“There are a lot of candidates saying they are strong on immigration. We would beg to differ,” Mr. Brabender said. “There are substantive differences.”
Mr. Cruz, though, has so far avoided the confrontation.
Mr. Brabender said the jabs are about more than just getting a sound bite on television.
“It is still very early, but there is a tendency to look at all these candidates as very similar and to pay attention to the most outrageous thing that is said,” Mr. Brabender said. “But I think we are getting to a new phase of the campaign where the candidates are articulating their vision for the future, and differences between that vision and their plan and [those of] the other candidates.”
Mr. Jindal, the Louisiana governor and former top state health official, is hoping to draw those distinctions on Obamacare, aiming to capture some of the support for Mr. Walker.
Both men have now released plans to undo the Affordable Care Act, but Mr. Jindal says Mr. Walker’s falls short on conservative principles, and has challenged him to a one-on-one debate on the issue.
“Scott Walker’s plan actually does create a new entitlement program,” Mr. Jindal said Friday at the Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit. “It actually does guarantee universal coverage through government subsides for every American.”
The Walker camp has countered by highlighting how conservatives have noted that Mr. Jindal has previously advocated for similar proposals.
Mr. Walker also suggested he is open to a one-on-one showdown with Mr. Jindal, as long as the Louisiana governor is allowed into the ring for the second prime-time debate next month in California, which CNN is limiting to 10 participants based on polls. That doesn’t bode well for Mr. Jindal, who is polling near the back of the field.
“If he makes the cuts, or anybody else does, I will be debating them,” Mr. Walker said.
And then there’s Mr. Trump, who has no such troubles getting on the front page, but who’s become the chief target for those campaigns Mr. Levesque was talking about.
Mr. Trump, though, has faced down all comers with severe rhetorical retribution, beginning with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, whom Mr. Trump called a “lightweight” and gave out his cell number after the senator attacked him.
Then Mr. Trump mocked former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who’d accused Mr. Trump of disparaging prisoners of war, saying Mr. Perry needs to have an IQ test before he gets the chance to participate in a debate.
Mr. Trump has also had dustups with Mr. Paul, making fun of his diminutive stature and sinking poll numbers, and Carly Fiorina, taunting her after she questioned campaign donations he previously gave to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Carly was a little nasty to me. Be careful, Carly. Be careful,” he said during a recent stop in New Hampshire.
The biggest punches have been traded, however, between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bush, who got knocked off the top of the GOP heap by the Trump surge.
Mr. Bush first tried to ignore Mr. Trump, then engaged him directly on issues, and now accuses him of being a fake conservative.
“I’m a proven conservative with a record. He isn’t,” the former governor asserted last week, adding that Mr. Trump has “been a Democrat longer than a Republican.”
Mr. Trump has replied with devastating jabs, calling Mr. Bush a low-energy retread who even managed to bungle a question over whether his brother’s 2003 decision to invade Iraq was the right one.
“We need a person with a lot of smarts, a lot of cunning and a lot of energy, and Jeb doesn’t have that,” Mr. Trump told ABC. “I think he’s a very nice person. If he became president, good luck. It’s another Bush. It’s going to be the same old story.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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