Evangelical Leaders Perkins, Bauer Back Away From Threats To Back Third-Party Candidate If Abortion-Rights Supporter Wins GOP Nomination

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 12 Oct 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and American Values President Gary Bauer on Wednesday "backed away" from previous threats that religious conservative leaders would consider running a third-party presidential candidate if the Republican Party nominates an abortion-rights supporter, The Hill reports. Both Perkins and Bauer said supporting a third-party candidacy virtually would "guarantee" that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for the Democratic nomination, would become president (Youngman, The Hill, 10/10). They added that antiabortion voters' issues with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights, will not be resolved by Giuliani casting himself as a better candidate than Clinton (Sisk, New York Daily News, 10/4).

Almost everyone present at a meeting of a group of Christian conservatives last month supported the statement, "If the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate, we will consider running a third-party candidate," some participants at the meeting said. The group included Perkins, James Dobson of Focus on the Family and a number of other politically minded, conservative Christians (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 10/3). Bauer said that Giuliani is the most "problematic from the standpoint of values voters," but added, "Politics ... is a messy business," and "you rarely find somebody who agrees with you all the time" (The Hill, 10/10). Perkins said, "Nobody desires to go out and crate a third party" (New York Daily News, 10/4).

Bauer and Perkins said they thought it was possible that social conservative Republicans will unite behind a candidate. Both men said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is perceived to be good on their issues but soft on terrorism; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) can overcome questions about his religion; and former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) did well Tuesday in his first debate (The Hill, 10/10).

Letter Supporting Romney Sent to Conservative Christian Leaders
In related news, Mark DeMoss, a publicity agent whose clients include the Rev. Franklin Graham, recently wrote a letter to 150 conservative Christian leaders calling on them to "galvanize support" around Romney "so Mr. Giuliani isn't the unintended beneficiary of our divided support among several candidates," the New York Times reports.

DeMoss also addressed skepticism of Romney's switch from abortion-rights supporter to opponent, saying the point of antiabortion advocacy is to persuade people to switch positions. He added that the leaders should also support Romney "so we don't abdicate the presidency (and the future of the Supreme Court) over to Hillary Clinton" (Luo, New York Times, 10/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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