The Eye

Toomey said he recruited Chocola to succeed him at the organization. His House tenure, from 1999 to 2005, overlapped with Chocola's for two years.

Toomey said Chocola in Congress "was a staunch defender of the American taxpayer, fighting for the limited-government, free-market principles that are the foundation for economic growth in this country."

Chocola, 47, was first elected in 2002 in a northern Indiana district that includes South Bend, which had a steady if not overwhelming Republican lean. He won a second term in 2004 over Democratic lawyer Joe Donnelly.

But Donnelly, riding a strong Democratic tide that first welled up in 2006, won a rematch that year with an 8 percentage-point margin, and was re-elected much more easily in 2008 over a lesser-known Republican opponent.

The organization Chocola is taking over hasn't shied from attacking Republicans, including incumbents, that it says do not adhere to fiscally conservative precepts. It has labeled them RINOs, for "Republicans in Name Only."

The Club for Growth backed Toomey in 2004 when the three-term congressman went head-to-head with Specter. Even with high-profile support from President Bush, who was en route to winning a second term in the White House, and the strongly conservative Rick Santorum, then his Pennsylvania Senate colleague, Specter barely hung on to defeat Toomey by 51 percent to 49 percent.

The Club's attacks on GOP incumbents have stirred some controversy, especially in two districts where the party lost House seats after Club-backed conservative candidates defeated Republican moderates in primaries.

In 2008, Democrat Frank Kratovil Jr. defeated Republican Andy Harris to capture the seat in Maryland's strongly Republican 1st District after Harris, backed by The Club for Growth, ousted centrist incumbent Wayne T. Gilchrest in the GOP primary. Also that year, Club-backed Republican Tim Walberg -- who barely hung on to win Michigan's 7th District seat in 2006 after defeating moderate Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz in the primary -- lost the seat to Democrat Mark Schauer.