Vilified by some, Pence praised at Capitol for a personal touch

Published 1:45 pm Friday, July 15, 2016

WASHINGTON – When Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was still in Congress, he’d walk over to other members on the floor of the House of Representatives and put his arm around them, recalled Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind.

Pence would ask colleagues how they were doing – and actually seemed interested in their response, Rokita said in an interview.

Four years after Pence left Capitol Hill, Rokita said other House members still stop him to ask for updates on Pence.

Rokita joked they never ask him how he’s doing.

Pence, selected Friday to be Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, served six terms in the House, from 2000 to 2012, and has not always been so warmly embraced.

Elected Indiana’s governor in 2012, he has been embroiled in controversies over support of measures that limited abortion or were criticized as allowing discrimination toward lesbians and gays.

Pence’s popularity in the state, where he until Friday was running for reelection as governor, dropped to 40 percent in a recent poll.

But on Capitol Hill, at least, Pence, 57, remains popular among many members and is seen as an asset to Trump, who has acknowledged his own inexperience in dealing with Congress.

Trump’s bombastic and bullying style has strained relationships with Republicans in Washington, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, during a primary season in which the real estate developer and other Republican contenders openly mocked each other.

That contrasts sharply with the image of Pence painted by Republican lawmakers and a former top Democrat, who say he won respect for not taking the low road.

“He’s a person of absolute integrity, a man of profound principles, and just a really nice guy,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., whose House career overlapped Pence’s for 10 years.

“Good luck with doing oppo research on him,” Cole chuckled in reference to the digging done by political campaigns into the histories of opponents.

“There’s nothing to find about him,” he said. “In his personal life, he’s a straight arrow.”

Rokita said, “He’s revered in our caucus.”

It remains to be seen if that affection for Pence will help Trump win over voters, especially in light of Pence’s sometimes polarizing positions.

On Thursday night, even before Trump formally announced Pence as his running mate, the liberal political action group MoveOn was already using him to raise money.

A fundraising email said Republicans hope to graft Pence’s experience onto Trump, a political newcomer.

“What Republicans don’t want people to know is that Gov. Pence is one of the most extreme, right-wing politicians in America,” the group said, citing last year’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana.

The law allowed businesses and individual to cite religious beliefs as a legal defense, which critics said was tantamount to a license to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Businesses threatened to boycott the state until a follow-up bill was rushed through to clarify that the act could not be used for that purpose.

Pence’s support over the years for measures to limit abortion and stop funding for Planned Parenthood hasn’t helped him win over women voters. In recent polling, he lagged badly among women behind Democratic gubernatorial challenger John Gregg.

Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, said Friday that Trump had embraced Pence’s polarizing history by selecting him as a running mate.

“Donald Trump has doubled down on some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favor millionaires and corporations over working families,” Podesta said in a statement.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, an gay-rights group, also said Trump had reinforced an “agenda of hate and discrimination by choosing the notoriously anti-LGBTQ Mike Pence for his ticket.”

On the other side of the political spectrum, Pence is expected to excite conservatives and evangelicals, some of whom continue to view Trump with suspicion.

Despite the firestorm that some of Pence’s positions have caused, his former colleagues in Congress say he won respect there for not being a bomb-thrower.

“His calm demeanor is needed in the Oval Office and the White House. … He’s a good complement to Trump in many ways,” said Sen. Dan Coats, also an Indiana Republican.

Coats noted that Trump, in one-on-one and small settings, is not the boisterous character he plays on TV and at rallies.

A spokesman for Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, declined comment.

Cole, who does not know Trump well, said Pence’s selection will be comforting to those who’ve worked with him.

“We know him as a colleague and as a decent, pragmatic politician. He’d be a wonderful emissary here on the Hill. He’s not an unfamiliar face,” said Cole.

Others who were considered likely choices for Trump’s ticket – including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – are also well known in Washington.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who served with Pence in the House in 2011 and 2012, also recalled his personal touch.

Lankford, though, said Pence will have work ahead of him in getting to know a large number of lawmakers who’ve arrived since he left.

Former Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat who served as assistant whip for his party while Pence was in the House, also praised him.

Now a lobbyist, Boucher in an interview said he and Pence became friends after they co-sponsored a 2005 bill to shield reporters from being compelled to disclose confidential sources.

“This is a person who is respected on both sides of the aisle,” he said.

“It was never personal in the way he expressed his views. It was based on substance. He never lashed out and never attacked another person,” he said.

Cole agreed that Pence’s style wasn’t to vilify people “to their face or behind their back.”

“He just wouldn’t do that,” he said. “And that’s definitely not the norm here.

“He’s congenial, has a self-deprecating sense of humor, just someone you instinctively trust,” Cole said. “It probably reflects his faith, though he’s not someone who’s going to shove it down your throat.”

At the same time, Cole and Boucher called Pence a skilled pragmatist.

Cole said: “He understands that getting 80 percent of what you want is pretty good, and you should take it.”

Pence was unable to pass any major pieces of legislation, but was able to rise up the ranks to become chairman of the House Republican Conference – at the time his party’s third-highest ranking leader in the House.

Boucher said he will not be voting for Trump and Pence in November but said his former colleague would be “a terrific adviser to the president.”

“He’d give clear direction on what can be done and what should be done,” he said.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com