Brownback Has the Credentials, But Not the Buzz

c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Sam Brownback has never been a star attraction on the capital scene. Instead, the soft-spoken Republican from Kansas quietly built an 11-year Senate career as a champion for conservative Christians, fighting abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research with a consistency and fervor matched by few. Brownback, […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Sam Brownback has never been a star attraction on the capital scene.

Instead, the soft-spoken Republican from Kansas quietly built an 11-year Senate career as a champion for conservative Christians, fighting abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research with a consistency and fervor matched by few.


Brownback, 50, comes to that commitment, he says, by way of his upbringing as a farmer’s son and his relatively new faith as a Roman Catholic.

“I am the base of the (Republican) party,” he said in a recent interview, and he hopes to parlay those convictions into a longshot bid for the White House.

But now some wonder if that spiritual journey _ from Methodist to evangelical to Roman Catholic _ may hurt his appeal with the very base he needs to power his campaign.

Brownback became a Catholic in 2002, with former Sen. Rick Santorum as his sponsor. He now attends two services every Sunday, first going to Mass on his own and then to an evangelical church with his wife and children.

“It’s a beautiful mix,” he said.

Catholics likely would have no problem with Brownback’s spiritual path, according to Brian Saint-Paul, editor of the conservative Catholic magazine Crisis. Instead of seeing a lack of commitment, Saint-Paul said, “Faithful Catholics would look on his conversions as a progression.”

But the Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, a small conservative Washington-based evangelical ministry, said he has detected “confusion” among some evangelicals about Brownback’s faith.

“Some are asking, `Does Sam think less of us now that he’s left us?”’ Schenck said. “I do believe it left him with an added burden that the other would-be nominees do not carry.”

Asked if he was aware of those sentiments, Brownback grows quiet. Yes, he said, some voters along the campaign trail have asked about his conversion, usually in one-on-one conversations. He said he tries to reassure them that his departure does not mean he rejects their fellowship.


“I tell them I felt a deep calling to do it,” he said. “I was very happy (as an evangelical).”

But to be sure, those questions are an “added burden” that prove especially tough for a candidate who routinely ranks in the low single digits in national polls, lagging far behind top-tier candidates Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

In a survey of Republican voters released June 4 by the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of respondents knew Brownback’s name _ the lowest percentage among the GOP field. Worse, of that 40 percent, more than half said there was “no chance” they would vote for him in 2008.

“If he was one of the top-tier three, (religious conservatives) would be saying, `Our man, our man,”’ said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, a conservative thinktank.

Fundraising is another challenge. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Brownback raised just under $1.9 million through March. It puts him ahead of several low-profile candidates, but well behind the frontrunners.

“I’ve got to introduce myself as a viable candidate,” he acknowledged. “It’s going to take some time.”


Brownback is betting on a strong showing at the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa on Aug. 11. His recent four-day bus tour stopped 27 times across the state, allowing Brownback to promoting himself as a “full-scale conservative” in a field of compromisers.

Political observers in Iowa say it’s too soon to tell whether the bus tour has given Brownback any new momentum there. But the straw poll may well be his best opportunity for media buzz.

McCain and Giuliani have opted not to participate, and grassroots frustration with the field may create the perfect conditions for a dramatic upset. On the other hand, with those two heavy hitters out of the running, a poor showing at the straw poll could be fatal to Brownback’s campaign.

Tamara Scott, director of the Iowa chapter of the conservative Christian activist group Concerned Women for America, said she hears many conservatives looking for something different.

“A lot of people are saying, `I’ll vote third party before I’ll vote for some of these candidates,”’ she said. Some of those voters, she added, could be drawn to candidates with strong conservative credentials like Brownback’s.

Brownback isn’t alone, however, in trying to appeal to conservative evangelicals. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, couples a similar conservative track record with a charismatic speaking style. And though Fred Thompson, the former senator and “Law and Order” actor, has not yet said whether he will compete in Ames, a number of voters are looking to him to enter the competition.


Further complicating the picture, some of Brownback’s political stands deviate from strict conservative orthodoxy.

His “pro-life, whole life” philosophy has led him to oppose capital punishment for all but the most egregious crimes, a position he credits to Catholic teaching. He has worked with Democrats to call for increased aid to Sudan and to propose a political solution to the Iraq war that would divide that country into three separate states.

He also supports a temporary guest-worker program as part of broader immigration reform, another stance that has upset some would-be supporters.

One thing is clear: Winning _ or even placing well _ in Iowa will be a long, tough haul for Brownback. But even without a victory there, Brownback end up in a better political position than before his campaign.

Cromartie, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, compared Brownback with 2000 presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative who dropped out after a poor performance in the early primaries.

But he suggested that Brownback can nonetheless help focus the primary debate on religious values and issues. If he can grow into that role, Cromartie and others said, it may translate into a higher national profile.

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