Base Closing Choices Impact Politics

08/27/2005

ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. (AP) - When the Pentagon announced that it wanted to shut down Ellsworth Air Force Base, it was an enormous setback for Sen. John Thune. The Republican got elected in part by repeatedly telling voters he could save the base because of his close ties to President Bush.

Thune responded to the Ellsworth news by going on the offensive: He and fellow South Dakota leaders from both parties launched an intense lobbying effort. He also stopped fund-raising for the Republican Party and opposed the Bush administration on a few important Senate votes.

On Friday, Thune’s political future got a big boost when a federal commission decided to save Ellsworth, home to B-1B bombers and a major player in the Cold War. He and other South Dakota politicians hailed the decision as the result of an extraordinary bipartisan campaign that convinced the commission that the military and nation need Ellsworth.

But not everyone saw it that way.

“Politics, not the security of our country and the safety of our soldiers, is obviously a significant force driving this process,” New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg said Friday. The commission voted to close New Jersey’s Fort Monmouth Army base.

“Keeping a Cold War era base open and closing Fort Monmouth, which is essential to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, makes no sense,” said Lautenberg, a Democrat.

Thune insists the process has not been political.

“This whole decision was about the merits,” he said. “It had nothing to do with the politics.”

Thune says the White House has stayed out of the process, but acknowledges that he has been in contact with the administration. Thune says he has not “recently” talked about Ellsworth with Bush, who recruited him to run against Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle last year.

He said the White House has “made it clear they are not going to be involved” with the issue, but added that “everyone in the administration knows the importance of this issue to me and to South Dakota.”

New England politicians enjoyed the same fate as Thune two days earlier when the commission spared two major Navy installations that were targeted for closure. They also lobbied in bipartisan fashion to save the facilities, and observers point out that Maine and Connecticut - the home of the installations - are both blue states.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the use of a federal commission to decide the fate of military installations makes the process far less political than it was previously when Congress handled such decisions.

However, Sabato said politics are involved in some fashion.

“No one believes there is never any political consideration in these decisions. It’s not human,” he said.

But Sabato said that if politics played a big role, the Pentagon never would have recommended closing Ellsworth because it was an embarrassment for Thune. The closing probably would not have unseated Thune in five years, but the commission’s decision to save Ellsworth is a boost nonetheless, he said.

“This is bound to help Thune, like a pardon,” Sabato said.

Paul Hirsch, a staff member for the 1991 base closing commission and a lobbyist for several bases this year, said politics doesn’t always play into the process.

“I think politics behind the scenes plays into it, but I don’t think ‘this is a red state’ or ‘this is a blue state’ plays as prominently,” Hirsch said. “I think the personal politics and the one-on-one politics are more prevalent.”

The Pentagon plan called for placing all of the B-1 bombers at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. But supporters of Ellsworth said it was saved because they were able to show it would be risky to place all the nation’s B-1 bombers in one location, because a single storm or terrorism attack could incapacitate the entire fleet. The commission also realized there would be no financial savings in closing the base, they said.

The 8-1 commission vote crossed party lines, with Democrats voting to keep Ellsworth open.

South Dakota’s congressional delegation and Gov. Mike Rounds repeatedly said they put partisan politics aside as they worked to save Ellsworth. Thune and Rounds, Republicans, consulted frequently with Democrats Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth, and their staffs worked side by side for months.

The cooperation was particularly notable because Johnson defeated Thune by just 524 votes in the 2002 Senate race, a contest that was just as bitter as Thune’s historic victory over Daschle last year.

“Some people may raise an eyebrow, but this is not unprecedented,” Johnson said.

Rounds added: “I’ve never seen a united effort like this in South Dakota before where literally everybody from every walk of life and both political parties are standing in unison.”

Ellsworth is the state’s second-largest employer - home to almost 4,000 people. It has an annual $278 million economic impact on the state.