[**http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060424/24pence.htm**](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060424/24pence.htm)

**And Now, Batting Right**

By Danielle Knight

4/24/06

Rep. Mike Pence compares himself to the old baseball player in the movie
*The Natural*. And it\'s not, he chuckles, because he\'s got Robert
Redford\'s good looks.

Like the Redford character, Roy Hobbs, the grizzled home-run hitter who
comes back after a long hiatus, the silver-haired Indiana Republican is
on a roll after years of trying unsuccessfully to break into the major
leagues. \"What made him so committed to winning, so committed to the
integrity of the game,\" says the 46-year-old Pence, comparing himself
to the fictional sports star, \"was it took him so long to get there.\"
Pence ran for Congress in 1988 and lost, ran two years after that and
lost. Today, however, in his third term on Capitol Hill, he has emerged
as a powerful force, moving Congress further to the right.

**Rising star.** Known as a \"conservative\'s conservative\" on fiscal
and social issues, Pence chairs an influential group of more than 110
Republican spending hawks who are winning major victories in their
battle for smaller government. Under Pence, the group has broken ranks
with party leadership and moderates, often clashing with President Bush.
Conservative members love his steady leadership style and intelligent
articulation of conservative values. \"He is clearly a rising star among
conservatives and a man we believe will be a major influential player in
the process of reforming our government in the years to come,\" says
Bill Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative
Union, which gave Pence its highest score of 100 percent for the past
two years.

The latest internecine GOP battle is over next year\'s \$2.8 trillion
budget. Moderates want at least \$7 billion in extra spending for
education, healthcare, and other social programs. But Pence and
like-minded colleagues created havoc by coercing the House leadership to
crack down on two notorious budgetbusting categories: earmarks (also
known as pork barrel projects) and \"emergency\" items. Members of the
Appropriations Committee, which writes the checks, balked at the
restrictions. They refused to finish a budget bill, forcing embarrassed
House leaders to slink off for their Easter recess with nothing to show.
\"It\'s unfortunate,\" said Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry
Lewis, \"that the whims of a few would prevent the overwhelming majority
of our members from once again enjoying similar budgetary success.\"

Pence and his allies, however, can hardly be called \"a few.\" More than
110 House Republicans out of a total of 231 belong to the conservative
Republican Study Committee that he chairs. Over 20 Republicans joined
the committee since Pence took the helm two years ago. Under Pence\'s
leadership, the committee has played a pivotal role in a House closely
divided between Democrats and Republicans. It helped push the House last
year to pass the deficit reduction bill, which Bush signed into law,
even though Democrats and Republican moderates protested that it cut
important spending for healthcare and education.

Most committee members say they elected Pence not only for his
leadership abilities but for his media savvy and communication skills.
His own communication training began more than a decade ago when he
started hosting a call-in radio show, which eventually ran on 18
stations across Indiana. He still guest-hosts a program aired in
Indianapolis from microphones set up next to his desk in his office in
the Cannon House Office Building.

Pence wants his fellow conservatives to be equally adept on the air.
Every Wednesday, when the committee meets in the basement of the
Capitol, Pence hosts a \"media minute,\" in which he plays a recent
video clip of one of the members. \"He\'s certainly the most effective
communicator we\'ve had,\" says Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a friend and
member of the RSC. \"He allows a good debate and has a willingness to
hear other voices.\"

Pence often refers to himself as \"a Christian, a conservative, and a
Republican, in that order.\" But it wasn\'t always so. Pence was born
into a family of Democratic Irish Catholics in Columbus, Ind. His
father, a decorated Army veteran who served in Korea, ran several gas
stations. In the late 1970s, Pence first campaigned as a Democrat in
Bartholomew County, Ind. Today, he still keeps a box of keepsakes of
John F. Kennedy, a hero to his family, in his garage in Columbus.

**Conversion.** But he began a metamorphosis around the time he went to
Hanover College. He converted to evangelical Christianity, and he
changed his politics as well\--becoming inspired by Ronald Reagan\'s
conservatism of less taxes and smaller government. After graduating from
Indiana University law school, he started a quest for Congress that
pushed his ideological zeal to the limits with a series of tough attack
ads against his opponent. After his two early losses, he had one more
conversion: He apologized for the negative ads and took a step back. He
ran a regional conservative think tank and began a talk radio career
with the *Mike Pence Show*. The new Pence likened himself to \"Rush
Limbaugh on decaf,\" pounding the hard-right policy points, but in a
polite tone.

After almost 10 years on the air, the name recognition helped catapult
Pence back into politics, and he was elected to represent east-central
Indiana in 2000. Pence felt as if he had finally arrived\--but with
regrets because he missed the Republican takeover in 1994. \"I\'m like
the minuteman,\" he jokes, \"who showed up 10 years late for the
Revolution.\"

Pence moved with his wife, Karen, and three kids to Washington. When he
arrived, he was made part of Rep. Tom DeLay\'s whip team, eventually
getting promoted to deputy whip. But Pence was increasingly at odds with
the Republican leadership and with President Bush. While he supports the
president\'s policies on Iraq, he has opposed him on a wide range of his
other priorities, including the budget, the No Child Left Behind Act,
the Dubai ports deal, and the Medicare prescription drug bill. Pence\'s
unwillingness to toe the party line eventually caused him to give up the
whip position when he was elected to chair the Study Committee. \"No
man,\" he says, \"can serve two masters.\"

Having won re-election by wide margins in 2002 and 2004, Pence is
expected to keep his seat in the upcoming election. His name surfaces as
a potential future candidate for House leadership, a move he doesn\'t
rule out. But Republican aides and strategists agree that, for now, he
is most effective on the outside.

Whether he can pull off the political equivalent of the Natural\'s
towering home runs is anyone\'s guess. But for the moment, Pence is
clearly on a winning streak.

**Born:** June 7, 1959

**Family:** Married to Karen.

**Children:** Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey

**Education:** Hanover College, B.A., 1981; Indiana University, J.D.,
1986

**Career:** Attorney, 1986-91; president, Indiana Policy Review
Foundation, 1991-1993; radio and TV broadcaster, 1992-1999. Congress,
2001-present