Burkett In Quandary Over Campaign

Rich Burkett is in a quandary.

Burkett, of Warsaw, is running for the Republican nomination in the Third Congressional District.

Five other candidates are running against him in the May primary election. All are seeking the opportunity to run against Tim Roemer, the incumbent Democrat from South Bend, in the November general election.

Burkett was the GOP nominee in 1992 and lost to Roemer. Burkett had little money and even less party support. He nonetheless ended up with 45 percent of the vote, winning Elkhart and Kosciusko counties.

Burkett's quandary is simply this. Where Roemer's concerned, he can't figure out if he's running against a Republican or a Democrat.

"A couple years ago he was voting like a liberal and talking like a conservative," Burkett said this week. "Now he's voting like a conservative and talking like a liberal."

When candidates say something like that, the initial reaction is that it's all just a bunch of hooey. But in Roemer's case, there is more than a touch of validity to Burkett's comment.

Throughout his three-term congressional career, Roemer has spent a great deal of time telling his constituents just how "moderate" he is.

Fact is, he's been all over the map.

His eventual opponent will be trying to link Roemer to President Clinton. A couple years ago, that would have been an easy thing to do. But Roemer seems to have undergone a fascinating metamorphosis since then.

The American Enterprise Institute publishes a book called "Vital Statistics on Congress."

The following rating is from the American Conservative Union. The first number is the ACU rating for the year 1994. The second number is the ACU's career rating for the congressman. Now, remember, the ACU does not tabulate every vote a congressman makes. It only looks at votes where conservative issues are involved.

Here's how some senators and representatives were rated: Steve Buyer (R), 100-100; Dick Armey (R-now majority whip) 100-98; Phil Gramm (R), 100-96; Dan Coats (R), 92-92; John Kasich (R), 76-89; Newt Gingrich (R-now House speaker), 100-88; Bob Dole (R-Sen. majority leader), 100-82; Richard Lugar (R), 76-82; Robert Byrd (D), 40-28; Dick Gephardt (D-minority leader), 5-11; Bernard Sanders (D-only avowed Socialist in Congress), 0-7; Barney Frank (D), 0-4; Ted Kennedy (D), 0-3; and Tim Roemer (D), 14-3.

So, for his career, Roemer ranks right in there with Ted Kennedy on conservative issues, according to the ACU.

Interestingly, that ranking was down considerably from 1992, when Roemer got a 40 ranking from the ACU. His career rating was 35 that year.

The book also ranks a congressman on how often he votes to support his party's position and how often he votes to support the president's position.

In 1992, he voted 71 percent of the time with his party and 41 percent of the time with his president - Bush, that is.

In 1994, Roemer voted 86 percent of the time with his party and 83 percent of the time with his president - Clinton, that is. Not exactly what I would consider moderate.

But lately, Roemer seems to be swinging back to the right.

For example, in 1994, during a televised forum featuring Roemer and Burkett, Roemer made the following comment concerning the Republican Contract with America:

"I don't think it's worth the paper it's written on..." "They (Republicans) are appealing in a douple-speaking way, in a very, very, I think dripping with cynicism manner to what appeals to people, but saying to them we're going to send you the check in the mail...." And, "I am referring to Newt Gingrich and I am referring to my opponent and anyone else who puts their name on this piece of paper that's actually not worth much of anything other than a gimmick to try to get elected."

But Burkett notes that Roemer has voted in favor of fully five of the contract items and portions of three others including the line item veto, the balanced budget amendment, congressional reform, regulatory reform and welfare reform.

A couple years back, Roemer was rated as one of the top five hypocrites in a survey by the National Taxpayers Union. That meant he promised a certain number of budget cuts but voted to enact only a small percentage of those cuts.

Right now, Burkett says, Roemer is only the 181st biggest spender out of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. That puts him clearly in the middle of the spending pack.

And the hypocrisy index? Well, Burkett says Roemer has actually voted for more cuts than he promised, which would probably put him in the bottom five.

"Who do I run against?" Burkett wonders. "Roemer the big spender or Roemer the conservative?"

Roemer's swings from liberal to conservative and back aren't the only thing that's troubling to Burkett. So is his waffling.

Burkett notes that Roemer publicly denounced the invasion of Haiti, but voted against a bill (vote 224 of HR4301) that stated military action shouldn't be undertaken without the president showing danger to U.S. citizens or interests.

He also notes that in March 1993, Roemer voted for the Clinton binding budget resolution. That effectively set spending levels for the year. Throughout the process, Roemer voted to keep that budget intact, including voting in favor of closed rules.

"But on Aug. 5, he votes no on the budget," Burkett said. "That's the high-profile vote. The 10 o'clock news vote, you see."

And here's Burkett's all-time favorite Roemer waffle. "He voted to fund a plant that wasn't going to be built, that would have manufactured an engine that wasn't needed for a space station he opposed," Burkett said.

If you want that explained to you, call Burkett at 267-6567.

Space doesn't permit a full accounting - a la Burkett - of Roemer's congressional faux pas and waffles. But Burkett claims to have them well documented and would happily recite them to anyone interested.

Burkett also would dearly love to debate Roemer. But Roemer - at least during the last election - wasn't interested.

So how will Burkett campaign against Roemer if nominated?

"I guess I'll run on telling the truth. As far as I know, I'm the only one that has run on the platform of telling the truth," he said. "You won't have to guess whether I'm liberal or conservative. You won't have to guess whether I'm a Democrat, Republican, Communist or Socialist. You will always know where I stand. I think that's the best I can do."