BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON - The rank-and-file backlash against Republican congressional leaders spread to the Senate on Tuesday as an outspoken freshman lawmaker announced he will seek to unseat veteran Sen. Mitch McConnell as chairman of the committee that funnels campaign money to GOP Senate candidates.
Although the challenge by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., is viewed as a long shot, his candidacy was a slap at the chamber's Republican leadership in the wake of the party's failure to broaden its congressional majority in the Nov. 3 elections.
Mr. McConnell, R-Ky., an ally of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has been widely criticized since the election for the way he has run the campaign committee.
Post-election anger among House Republicans already has forced Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to step down as speaker and led to the defeat of Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, as head of the GOP Conference. Until Tuesday, the Senate GOP leaders were considered safe.
Mr. Hagel, a maverick conservative with a penchant for speaking his mind, told a news conference Tuesday the Senate leadership needed "a creative agenda" with which to attract voters.
Although Mr. Hagel insisted that vote counts showed he was "in striking distance" of victory, strategists said he hurt himself among fellow GOP senators by criticizing Mr. Lott publicly.
Senate Republicans are scheduled to hold in-house elections on Tuesday for majority leader, majority whip (a post held by Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma) and campaign committee chairman; only Mr. McConnell is expected to be challenged.
Mr. McConnell, first elected to the Senate in 1984, is an intense, fiercely partisan politician who has run the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as the panel is known, in close-to-the-vest style since 1996.
He has drawn criticism for allowing his own personal agenda to influence the way he distributes campaign funds. Staunchly opposed to campaign finance overhaul, he did little to help reform advocate Rep. Linda A. Smith, R-Wash., in her failed bid to unseat Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
He also poured large amounts of committee money into his home state to help Republican Rep. Jim Bunning edge Rep. Scotty Baesler in a battle for an open Senate seat.
