Is Kevin Hern "deceptively liberal"?

Club for Growth Action, a political action committee that promotes tax cuts and reducing government waste and regulation in the interests of economic growth, is making major media buys in opposition to McDonald's franchisee Kevin Hern, a candidate to fill the Oklahoma 1st Congressional District seat held until recently by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

CfGA is running TV and radio ads claiming that Hern has a "habit of backing Democrats," noting that "Hern gave seventeen thousand dollars to a political committee that supported liberal Democrats . . . including Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Maxine Waters, and Sheila Jackson Lee" and that "Hern even wrote personal check to make a campaign contribution to the Democrat Senator who cast the deciding vote for Obamacare."

It's all true, but here's some context:

According to data retrieved from the Federal Election Committee website, in 1998, Hern, then with an address in Maumelle, Arkansas, made two contributions totalling $850 to Nate Coulter, a Democratic candidate for the open U. S. Senate seat. Coulter finished last in the primary. On September 17, 1998, Hern then made a $500 contribution to the Democratic nominee, then-former U. S. Representative Blanche Lambert Lincoln, who went on to win the seat in November 1998, keeping the seat in the Democrat column.

Eleven years later, Sen. Lincoln did indeed vote for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The vote for cloture passed 60-39 on a strict party-line vote, and Lincoln voted in favor, ending the Republican filibuster and allowing Obamacare to be approved by the Democrat majority. Had she voted no or abstained on the cloture vote, Obamacare would have been stopped.

It's reasonable to say that Lincoln cast the deciding vote for Obamacare. Certainly she cast one of the deciding votes: Lincoln was one of several Democrats from conservative states who might have reasonably voted no in accord with her constituents, but instead voted with her party over their wishes. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson from Nebraska were another couple of potential no votes who also voted yes. Lincoln was duly punished by the voters the following year, losing her re-election bid by 58-37 to Republican John Boozman.

According to a report generated on OpenSecrets.org (which has some more effective ways to search FEC data), those three 1998 contributions are Kevin Hern's only direct donations to Democratic candidates for federal office. Beginning with his move to Muskogee, Hern began supporting Republican candidates: Andy Ewing ($1,250), the 2000 nominee to succeed Tom Coburn in the U. S. House; Tom Coburn's 2004 and 2010 campaigns for U. S. Senate ($6,800); 2nd District Congressman Markwayne Mullin ($10,200); James Lankford's campaigns for House and Senate ($6,300); Jim Bridenstine ($7,700); Marco Rubio's presidential campaign ($1,000); and Senators John Boozman, Bob Corker, and Pat Toomey, Oklahoma 5th District Congressman Steve Russell, and Florida 19th District Congressman Francis Rooney.

As for his support for PACs, Hern has given $16,055 to Oklahoma Leadership Council (whose major 2016 contributions were to state Republican Party organizations in Florida and Pennsylvania), $2,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $1,000 each to LankPAC (affiliated with James Lankford) and Oklahoma Strong Leadership PAC (associated with Scott Pruitt), and $250 to the Republican National Committee.

But what about this?

Hern has given $17,100 to McDonald's Corp PAC, which gave significantly more to Republicans to Democrats through the 2008 cycle, but since that time has evened things up considerably. In the 2016 cycle, for example, Hern gave $2,500 dollars to McDonald's Corp PAC, and the PAC supported Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Maxine Waters, but they also supported Republican House members like Bob Goodlatte, Mia Love, Steve Scalise, and Devin Nunes and Senators like Chuck Grassley and Tim Scott. In the 2012 cycle, Hern gave $4,000, and the PAC backed Democrats like Rep. Shiela Jackson-Lee and Sen. Harry Reid, as well as Republicans like John Boehner, Tom Cole, and John Boozman.

Hern's contributions to McDonald's Corp PAC were as follows:

• 11/12/2004, $2,100.00
• 5/8/2006, $2,000.00
• 2/20/2009, $2,000.00
• 1/26/2010, $2,000.00
• 2/16/2011, $2,000.00
• 1/25/2012, $2,000.00
• 2/23/2016, $2,500.00
• 7/11/2017, $2,500.00

In the current election cycle, Hern has gotten most of his money back from McDonald's Corp PAC. Hern is one of two candidates to have received a $10,000 donation from the PAC; the other is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a leading candidate to succeed Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House.

It's understandable that McDonald's would want to spread money around Washington to protect its interests, but it's hard to understand why a conservative would continue to donate to a PAC that helps congressmen and senators who are working to undermine and overregulate the free market.

I'm not bothered by Kevin Hern's contributions to local Democrats 20 years ago when he was a young businessman in a state where Democrats were still influential. I am bothered by his ongoing contributions to a PAC that works for McDonald's best interests even when they're in conflict with America's best interests by keeping the likes of Chuck Schumer and Maxine Waters in office. If Hern has a reasonable explanation, he needs to provide it.

Instead, Hern has complained of dirty campaigning and demanded that Andy Coleman (who is endorsed by Club for Growth Action) denounce the ad.

As a conservative, free market voter, I'm less concerned that Hern is a liberal and more worried that he's a Chamber of Commerce-type crony capitalist who will sell out American taxpayers and workers for the sake of sweetheart deals, pork barrel, and cheap illegal-immigrant labor. Hern has the endorsement of the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, an organization that promotes Republicans who will compromise with the left in the name of pragmatism. Among its members, RMSP has Irish-terrorist booster Peter King, Bill Shuster of the central Pennsylvania pork-barrel dynasty, and Fred Upton, who led the charge to ban cheap and reliable light bulbs. Michelle Malkin has described the affilliated Republican Main Street Partnership as "statists in populist clothing... running a Washington incumbency protection racket." This is an organization that works to defend squishy Republican incumbents against principled conservative primary challengers. If they're backing Hern, I have to believe it's because they think Kevin Hern is malleable enough to become part of the Washington swamp, like the other politicians the group supports. Hern's failure to repudiate their endorsement ought to worry 1st District conservative voters.

Hern's ongoing donations to the McDonald's Corp PAC suggests poor judgment, Hern's decision to respond to the Club for Growth Action ads with attacks instead of explanations shows worse judgment, and Hern's endorsement by Republican Main Street Partnership PAC ought to alarm every conservative voter and send them in search of another candidate to support.