Conservatives Serious About to Threat to Bolt Giuliani GOP

c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Tony Perkins, the president of the powerful Family Research Council, said he wasn’t joking when he and other social conservatives threatened to back a third-party candidate for president if Rudolph Giuliani wins the Republican nomination _ even if it helps elect Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton. “For some of […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Tony Perkins, the president of the powerful Family Research Council, said he wasn’t joking when he and other social conservatives threatened to back a third-party candidate for president if Rudolph Giuliani wins the Republican nomination _ even if it helps elect Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton.

“For some of us, the most important thing is not to beat Hillary, it is to defend life,” Perkins said in an interview after a Sept. 29 meeting in Utah in which 45 influential social conservative leaders “kicked around” the notion of a third-party run.


One week after the meeting, Perkins said he doesn’t expect a third-party candidate to be “necessary.”

He predicts that Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, will soon lose his front-runner status as his support for abortion rights becomes better known. Giuliani has said that he personally opposes abortion, but would not deny a woman the right to choose that option.

Perkins said it would be a mistake to underestimate the convictions of what he calls “values voters,” whose first concern is “protection of life”followed by opposition to same-sex marriage and civil unions for gay couples.

Giuliani is attracting a large share of religious conservative support, according to the polls, and supporters, like Sen. David Vitter, R-La., believe Giuliani can win over skeptics based on his pledge to appoint judges who are strict constructionists, as well his leadership after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Any group that talks about a third-party option in the face of Hillary is effectively saying we’re willing to cede the election to her,” said Vitter, the Southern coordinator for Giuliani’s campaign.

Some analysts said there’s a big difference between talking about a third-party movement and actually getting it done, and wondered whether conservatives are simply using their threat to try to slow Giuliani’s momentum.

“One thing is for sure: The Christian right leaders are very serious about having a candidate that backs their social issue agenda,” said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and an expert on religious voters.


“The talk of an independent candidate is one way to show just how serious they are. Of course, this threat is most credible if they are really willing to do it.”

Even if they don’t back a third-party candidate, some Republicans are concerned that social conservatives _ who are credited with providing the votes that elected George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 _ might stay home on Election Day 2008, providing a major boost to the Democratic nominee.

Perkins said that while he hopes a “third party won’t be necessary,” it’s something he is prepared to strongly support if Giuliani or another “pro-abortion” rights candidate gets the Republican nomination.

“Maybe, for the Republican Party and for those who are party loyalists it’s all about beating Hillary,” Perkins said. “But there are other issues at stake and for us. The issue of life _ protecting innocent human lives _ is paramount.”

Asked how he would feel if Republicans lost the 2008 presidential race to Clinton and party officials blamed social conservatives for the defeat, Perkins said he isn’t nervous.

“I would go to sleep every night and get up every morning able to look myself in the mirror knowing that I did what I believe in: defending the unborn,” Perkins said.


Most of the leading GOP candidates will attend Perkins’ Family Research Council’s “Values Summit” on Oct. 19-21 in Washington. Giuliani added his name to the attendee list on Monday (Oct. 8).

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Perkins said he still hasn’t given up hope that social conservatives will find a candidate that they can embrace and help propel to front-runner status. But he concedes that other major GOP candidates are having trouble gaining support.

_ Latecomer Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and actor who was once seen as the great hope, has disappointed Perkins and other conservatives by saying he preferred marriage be defined by the states rather than by a constitutional amendment limiting it to a union between a man and woman. Others, including Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson, have expressed concern about Thompson’s admission that he is not a churchgoer.

_ Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is saying the right things about his opposition to abortion and gay rights, but must overcome questions about the sincerity of those positions given indications in his recent past that were dramatically different, according to Perkins. Some evangelical leaders have also expressed a reluctance to back a Mormon for the presidency.

_ Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a “great speaker,” with strong anti-abortion views, but hasn’t raised much money, and his credentials on foreign policy and as a fiscal conservative have been questioned, Perkins said.

_ Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is the preferred candidate for social conservatives on the basis of his unwavering opposition to abortion and gay rights, but doesn’t come close to Huckabee as a compelling speaker.


_ Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has reached out to social conservatives, but can’t seem to overcome his support for a campaign finance bill despised by many conservative advocacy groups. McCain also gets flack for comments he made during his 2000 run for the GOP presidential nomination when he criticizedthe late Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson for the “the evil influence that they exercise over the Republican Party.”

_ Giuliani would have problems with conservatives even if it weren’t for his position on abortion because he is twice-divorced and was a supporter of gun control laws as mayor of New York.

(Bruce Alpert writes for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)

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