GOP may feel brunt of anger over closures

WASHINGTON ? The Pentagon’s decision to slash military bases across New England also delivered a political slap to moderate Republicans facing re-election challenges in their largely Democratic-voting blue states.

It didn’t take long Friday for some observers to suggest that the proposed list of base closings released by the Defense Department may have had more to do with politics than military efficiencies.

“The ‘blue states’ really took it on the chin,” said Connecticut state Sen. Gary LeBeau, D-East Hartford. “There is certainly a political aspect to this.”

Pentagon officials have consistently stressed that base closings are shielded from politics, insisting instead that the list of bases targeted for shutdown is determined solely on the military merits of the facilities. Defense analysts said that is largely true.

“This is a nonpolitical process in the sense that installations are reviewed for their military value and their contribution in the force structure for the next 20 years,” said Robert Gilcash, military analyst with McKenna Long Aldridge in Washington. “You can’t change global events, and those are what’s driving these decisions, not the politics of Washington, D.C.”

But now that the list is out, members of Congress who must battle a base closing in their districts are likely to see that issue come up in campaigns waged against them. That is particularly true for vulnerable Republicans who have argued that their ties to the GOP-led Congress and White House give them and their constituents an advantage.

“This is a big political issue for a lot of people, certainly for me,” said Rep. Rob Simmons, a moderate Connecticut Republican who has been targeted by national Democrats in each of the last three elections. “Almost anything can be used against a Republican in a district that doesn’t have substantial Republican [party] affiliation.”

Simmons, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are moderates seeking re-election next year and who waged very public ? but ultimately unsuccessful ? campaigns to keep bases in their region off the list.

Chafee and Simmons met with military leaders to lobby for the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, and Snowe and other Maine and New Hampshire officials kept up an aggressive effort to keep the Portsmouth Naval Station in Kittery, Maine, alive.

“When your name is on the ballot, you’re accountable for the good and bad that happens to your state,” said Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The Democratic Party in Pennsylvania wasted no time Friday, blasting out a press release criticizing Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, who is considered vulnerable in 2006. Santorum, the release said, voted to allow the base closure round to go forward, and then undermined one of the state’s bases “giving the Pentagon cover to close it.”

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who led the successful fight to remove the Groton submarine base from the 1993 base closure list, said it will be more difficult this time to reverse the Pentagon’s recommendations. The proposed list now goes to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission for consideration.

He said he will assume the arguments for the base were flawed, rather than blame the result on politics.

“I don’t want to believe the administration would make decisions [on politics], but it would be awfully naive to think it was not part of the process,” Dodd said.

Democrats were largely reluctant to launch campaign attacks in the immediate hours after the painful cuts were announced. But they have made it clear those campaigns will come later.

“Simmons has made the statement that he should be elected because he’s on the Armed Services Committee and he has a relationship with the president,” Connecticut Democratic Chairwoman Nancy Dinardo said recently. “Closing the base would be devastating, and I think the voters would want to hold someone accountable.”

Rhode Island Democratic Chairman Bill Lynch said last month that residents may question why they need a GOP senator if he can’t exercise political pull with the administration.

Simmons said he has not yet been able to meet with administration officials about the base closings because he was told the White House was going to play no role in the early part of the process. Now, he said, he will start working with the commission and the White House to get the submarine base off the list.

But while he said he looks at this as a challenge, and “I’m not afraid of the challenges,” others say it will be an uphill fight.

“Simmons has been handed a difficult deck of cards,” said Gilcash, military analyst with McKenna Long Aldridge in Washington. “This is going to be tough.”