GOP Candidates Snub Social Conservatives

From The New York Sun:

If self-styled "values voters" have felt snubbed by the Republican presidential candidates this election season, that snubbing is now official.

Mayor Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and Senator McCain are all declining to participate in a September 17 debate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that's being hosted by an umbrella social-conservative group called ValuesVoter.org. Social conservatives will be upset; other conservatives might well be heartened by the waning power of the religious right.

A number of second-tier Republican candidates have confirmed attendance at the event, according to the news site WorldNetDaily.com, whose editor, Joseph Farah, is slated to moderate the debate. They include Rep. Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Senator Brownback, Rep. Ron Paul, and John Cox.

***
"If they don't come, it's their loss," the founder and president of Eagle Forum and a longtime anti-feminist icon, Phyllis Schlafly, told the Sun.

Ms. Schlafly, who is one of a number of people scheduled to ask questions at the debate, accused the top-tier Republican candidates of "ducking" values voters in the current primary process. "What it shows is that the grass roots are not happy with the ones who've been designated as the top candidates," she said. "Grassroots Republicans are voting for none of the above."

Most of the top-tier Republican candidates have made at least some effort at outreach to Christian conservatives. Mr. McCain famously spoke last May at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, having previously labeled Falwell an "agent of intolerance" back during the 2000 Republican primary. The socially moderate (some would say liberal) Mr. Giuliani spoke this April to televangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, has been furiously flip-flopping away from the socially liberal positions he took as Massachusetts governor on abortion and gay rights in order to court Christian conservatives. The Thompson campaign, of course, is just getting started, but it has hired numerous consultants to handle religious outreach.

Still, none of this has quashed a feeling among many on the right that the current crop of candidates is not nearly as conservative as the Republican base would like. Mr. Thompson has tried to pitch himself as a "conservative savior" candidate, but he's unlikely to gain any points with the groups represented by ValuesVoter.org by skipping the organization's debate.

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Republican Presidential Candidates Debate Will Focus on Questions From 40 Pro-Family Leaders