Barton denies he is using opposition research to upend Upton challenge

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is denying that he has used opposition research in an effort to undermine a rival in the race for the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Media outlets have reported that Barton helped orchestrate an anonymous analysis of Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) voting record that conservative activists are using to argue Upton is too moderate to lead the committee.

GOP sources have alleged that Barton is behind the effort, but he says otherwise.  
 
“We haven’t done that,” Barton said Thursday.

Barton told The Hill that he has had “some summaries” forwarded to him. “But that’s it, I’ve just seen them,” he said. “That’s not anything that I’ve compiled, that’s just out there.”
 
He said that many groups are “looking at the records” of those contending for top posts on Energy and Commerce and other major committees.

“There apparently are lots of conservative organizations in the country that are very interested in the new Republican Congress and the positions that the Congress is going to take, and part of that review apparently is to look at some of the major committees,” he said.
 
“I have seen some stories about Fred’s voting record and a few about mine, but the voting records are actually created by the members who do the votes,” Barton said. “It is what it is.”
 
Barton — who is currently ranking Republican on Energy and Commerce — emphasized that he is not running against Upton for the job in the next Congress.  
 
“I’m not running any kind of campaign opposing anybody else,” he said.
 
Barton said he and Upton spoke before the election and he “told Fred he’s got every right to position himself and maximize his opportunities. I have that same right.”
 
Barton said his experience on the panel “is more appropriate for the chairmanship in the next two years. So I’m running for me, and not against him.”

Upton is the favorite to replace Barton as top Republican on the panel. Reps. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) have also expressed interest in being chairman of the panel, but Barton said they are both supporting his bid “at this point in time.”
 
Barton is trying to convince party leaders not only that he is the best conservative candidate for the job, but also that he is able under House GOP rules to serve two more terms as top Republican on the Energy and Commerce panel without receiving a term-limit waiver.

The House GOP rule regarding term limits for committee chairmen “is ambiguous,” Barton said. “You can interpret the rule in different ways, and I think it’s a fair debate,” he said.
 
A 17-year-old Republican Conference rule states, “No individual shall serve more than three consecutive terms as chairman or ranking member of a standing, select, joint or ad hoc committee or subcommittee.”

House GOP leadership aides say Republican leaders are interpreting the rules as requiring Barton to receive a waiver, and insist he will not receive one. Barton was chairman of the panel for one Congress and has been ranking member of the panel the last four years under Democratic control.

The leadership aides say Republican leaders are still angry with Barton for not agreeing to replace minority committee Chief of Staff David Cavicke and for Barton’s apology to BP during a hearing over this summer’s Gulf of Mexico spill.
 
Barton shot back: “I don’t put a lot of faith in off-the-record, anonymous sources. I’m an on-the-record guy. I talk directly to members.”
 
He added, “My conservations with the people who are actually going to make the decisions … are very, very positive.”
 
Barton said he does not “see any negative fallout” from his apology to BP — which he quickly recanted after being verbally reprimanded by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
 
“That’s one of the questions I ask when I talk to people,” he said. “Universally, I’ve heard that that’s water under the bridge, that’s behind us.”
 
Barton, though, said that if he were to chair the Energy and Commerce panel during the next Congress, he would need to address frictions between his committee staff and House Republican leadership.

“That is an issue that will and can be successfully addressed,” Barton said, declining to offer further details. “It is absolutely paramount that there be a very open and positive” communication between the panel’s staff and those in the leadership, he said.
 
Barton said the last conservation he had with House GOP caucus leaders on whether party rules would require him to seek a waiver happened about a month or two ago. “They were all very, let me say this, interested, concerned, but noncommittal,” Barton said.
 
Their message, according to Barton, was “let’s win the election and then we’ll look at it, first things first,” Barton said. “I agreed with that.”

Barton said he then went out and “raised a bunch of money” and campaigned for candidates. “In terms of what I was asked to do and tasked to do, I did it all,” he said.
 
Barton received some help Wednesday from three former committee chairmen who wrote a letter to the House Republican transition team backing Barton for another term as Energy and Commerce chairman.

Former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas), former Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) — former chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure and Resources panels — pointed out that Senate Republicans “adopted the same ambiguous language and have since clarified it to mean that no one can serve more than six years as chairman and six years as ranking member.”
 
Barton said to expect “a number of positive developments in my campaign” in the coming days as well.
 
Barton said his first priority, if he were to head the panel, would be to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law. He said increased oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies is also needed.  
 
“I think I’ll be a very strong conservative champion the next two years,” Barton said. “Let’s go forward. I want to make John Boehner the most successful Speaker in the modern era.”