Maybe that standing ovation was the first clue.

Scott Martin and Dennis Stuckey, the endorsed Republican ticket for county commissioner, seemed to be on the ropes. They were under attack on the airwaves. Campaign polls were indicating they trailed unendorsed candidates Charlie Smithgall and Heidi Wheaton — badly.

Yet when Martin and Stuckey were introduced at the county GOP's May 7 dinner, Republicans around the room rose to their feet in what looked for all the world like a spontaneous cheer.

GOP executive director Andrew Heath, who chaired the Stuckey/Martin campaign, recognizes the ovation as a sign of things to come a week later:

Martin, 24,060.

Stuckey, 21,777.

Smithgall, 21,317.

Wheaton, 13,235.

When the county elections bureau wrapped up its count late Tuesday night, with Stuckey clinging to a 460-vote edge over Smithgall, GOP chairman Dave Dumeyer could tell another crowd of cheering Republicans that they had gone two for two on commissioners, six for six on judges and seven for seven in row offices.

"That, ladies and gentlemen," Dumeyer said, "is a clean sweep."

The GOP made its endorsements stick down the line by getting its voters to the polls, a feat Wheaton and Smithgall couldn't duplicate.

But how did the perennially divided, ever-bickering county GOP coalesce so firmly around Stuckey and Martin?

In part, it was because the party's ideological factions, the political equivalent of the Hatfields and the McCoys, cautiously laid aside their feud for the duration of the primary.

The reasons for the truce may be unique to this election cycle. Yet Martin and other Republicans hope the success of this campaign is a sign, too, that the party can stop fighting itself and focus on battling Democrats instead.

"The era of permanent divisiveness, I really hope, is over," Martin said.

A steep climb
The situation wasn't so hopeful when the campaign ran a poll shortly after the February endorsement convention.

"Nobody knew who Scott and Dennis were," Heath said. "Nobody."

The results were confirmed by reports of internal polling for Smithgall and Wheaton: Smithgall was in front, with Wheaton second and the endorsed candidates lagging far behind.

Polls, though, do not produce votes. The get-out-the-vote operation does. And that's where the party had an edge, if committee members held together.

Given history, it wasn't a cinch. The GOP had not been able to nominate two endorsed commissioner candidates since 1991. Ideological divides between moderates and social conservatives fueled many primary fights.

That didn't happen this spring. Friends of Better Government, from the moderate wing, and Lancaster County ACTION, the standard-bearer for the Christian right, kept a low profile and stuck with the ticket.

Leaders of the two PACs came together last year in Republicans for Trust and Accountability, which called for tougher screening of commissioner candidates. ACTION in particular was stung by criticism of commissioners Dick Shellenberger and Pete Shaub, the conservatives' "Dream Team" of 2003.

Shellenberger was endorsed by the party that year; Shaub, who resigned in February, was not.

The screening panel set up to vet candidates before the endorsement convention answered RTA's concerns but ended up being a focus of Wheaton's attacks on the party.

Bob Kettering, the Manheim Central GOP chairman and ACTION president, noted that "Congressman (Joe) Pitts got behind that team" early; Pitts has strong conservative credentials.

Stuckey said "the strong message that the committee sent with the first-ballot endorsement of Scott and I was a factor" in keeping the factions together.

A turning point?
Wheaton and Smithgall, however, were worrisome. Smithgall had high name recognition because of his two terms as Lancaster mayor. Wheaton had run a media-heavy campaign for state Senate in 2006 and was doing the same thing in 2007.

Committee members think Wheaton's mistake came April 18, at a Lancaster Rotary Club debate, when she compared endorsements to the kind of elections run by the "Politburo."

Martin called the remark, which was scripted, "bulletin-board material." Republican leaders used it to galvanize the grass roots.

Wheaton's campaign agreed the Politburo comment helped motivate the GOP. But spokesman Jim Hughes pointed to a late mailing from the Citizens' Review Group, an alliance of Republicans who put up a Web site and bought newspaper ads critical of Wheaton's management style and record as an East Hempfield Township supervisor, as a more influential factor.

Hughes said the mailer cost Wheaton the "second-choice" votes of about half the Republicans who said in an April 26 poll that Wheaton was their No. 2 pick.

About a third of the undecided votes in the poll, Hughes said, were Smithgall voters who weren't sure what to do with their second choice; rather than break for Wheaton, many of them opted for one of the endorsed candidates.

Ironically, that decision sank Smithgall as well.

Dumeyer said the criticisms of Wheaton probably had some effect, but weren't the key factor.

"Her problems started as soon as she uttered that very famous Politburo comment," Dumeyer said. "... That was something she inflicted on herself."

Lancaster Township committeeman John W.W. Loose said there was "a certain element of 'anti-establishment' feeling, particularly among those supporting Heidi Wheaton, but that is a rather permanent part of our national heritage: If everyone is for something, there must be a conspiracy afoot."

Diane Moore, chairwoman of the Hempfield Area GOP, said the much-criticized screening process gave committee members a sense of "ownership" of the endorsements. Combined with attacks from the Wheaton camp, "we ended up with a pretty fired-up and focused group."

Wheaton and Smithgall were at a disadvantage in the "ground game"; they didn't have a well-trained team to deploy on election day.

"No matter what people were saying about polls," Martin said, "a municipal primary election is really what they call a committeeperson's election." Party committee members drive the turnout, which tends to be faithful voters.

"No one could actually poll or gauge what effect that would have on the election," Martin said.

Teamwork
As election night wore on, while it was clear that Martin would win, the battle between Stuckey and Smithgall for the second spot hung in doubt.

Martin sat glued near the laptop on which Heath was compiling precinct results from committee members.

"He was up there, just as nervous as Dennis was," Heath recalled. "... And [Martin] knew he had this in the bag."

The endorsed ticket decided early on that it was one for all and all for one. But good intentions alone don't produce unity. Republicans have been warring at least for the last decade over the ideological direction of the party.

What changed this spring?

"I think there's a bit more of an effort than before, maybe, by both sides to come up with a group of candidates we can both be happy with," Kettering, of ACTION, said. "This group of candidates, from my perspective — they represent our values pretty well."

"I'm not sure it's as much of an issue as to whether they've learned to work together as it is a question as to whether they're still strong enough to stake their own territory within the county party," Hempfield's Moore said. "By and large, the new leaders emerging in the party don't focus on narrowing ideology nearly as much as they focus on accomplishment."

She cited the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign as a turning point; as Republicans of all stripes worked together to elect the top of the ticket, the effort "helped to knock down a lot of boundaries within the party."

"The public and the party, even, are tiring of the extremes ... pulling the party apart," Stuckey said.

For one thing, county Democrats are growing in numbers and savvy.

"If that makes the Republicans pay more attention to the quality, integrity and competence of our nominees and candidates, fine," Loose said.

For another thing, the new crop of Republican leaders are younger. The ideological battles of the '90s are ancient history to them.

"They're bright and articulate and they're energetic," Stuckey said. "I think they bring all that to the party, in addition to the pragmatic side of politics — that we need to keep the party strong and we need to win elections."

"We're not always going to agree on everything," Martin said, but "I see more of a spirit of cooperation among committee people."

"I think the Republican Committee of Lancaster County is learning some gratifying lessons," Moore said, "that it's more productive to focus your efforts on disarming your opponents than to eat your own young."

The trick is to make the lesson stick. For the moment, though, the GOP is enjoying Tuesday's outcome.

When Dumeyer introduced Martin and Stuckey as the victors at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday, the crowd erupted.

"This party," Martin said, "is the party of the people of Lancaster County."

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Helen Colwell Adams is a staff writer for the Sunday News.  Her email address is hcolwell@lnpnews.com.
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