Conservatives In U.S. House on the March

Whatever the outcome of the races for the U.S. House this week and whatever the personal election fate of Rep. Tom Feeney (R.-Fla.), the political action committee chaired by the Floridian-the House Conservatives Fund (HCF)-will have played a major role in keeping strong the conservative ranks in the House.

HCF is the unofficial political arm of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, and is supported by the RSC members.

"Although HCF helps Republicans running for the House, the PAC assists only conservatives and, yes, we get involved in primaries," explains HCF Executive Director Mike Bober. "Our mission is to increase the ranks of like-minded conservative Republicans in the House."

Beginning in September '05 when Feeney assumed its helm, HCF swiftly became a leading player in the election of conservative lawmakers. In the '06 election cycle, it raised more than $680,000.

This year, that amount has swollen to more than $1 million and HCF now has more than 10,000 individual donors from all 50 states. It has donated to more than 50 incumbents, challengers and open-seat candidates in the ?8 election cycle.

Earlier this year, before they even won contested Republican primaries, two conservative swashbucklers received help from HCF in their campaigns for Congress against Democratic incumbents in districts HCF thought the GOP could pick up: In Texas' 22nd District, HCF backed Pete Olson in bis tight race with Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson, and in Florida's 24th District, backed Tom Rooney, favored to unseat Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) recently launched his own PAC to help Republican Senate hopefuls, but only those who are conservative. Its name is the Senate Conservatives Fund.

(House Conservatives Fund, P.O. Box 2752, Washington, D.C. 20013; 202-441-1236)