Race for Republican National Committee Chairman Will Determine Christian Right's Influence
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
A who's who of religious conservatives endorsed former Ohio Secretary of State and Christian right darling Kenneth Blackwell's candidacy for Republican National Committee chairman over the weekend. The lineup includes Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Christian radio magnate Stuart W. Epperson, and Family Research Council chief Tony Perkins, whose group currently employs Blackwell.
However Blackwell fares in the race, it will be a major development for one of the big arguments facing the GOP after its sweeping 2008 losses: How big a role should the religious right play in the future of the party?
I see three potential outcomes.
The first is a Blackwell victory, which would represent a major upset for the Republican establishment and would mark a stunning coup for the religious right. The party would face the challenge of widening its appeal under a more conservative regime after losing the middle last November. This could turn out to be a redux of Sarah Palin, who was supposed to simultaneously shore up the GOP's religious base and bring in new Republican voters (women) but succeeded only in the former.
The second possibility is a Blackwell loss at the hands of a more moderate candidate, either current Chairman Mike Duncan or former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, which would signal an establishment rebuke to the GOP's evangelical grass-roots base. This could provoke some social conservative luminaries to threaten to leave the party. A similar drama engulfed the Republican Party a decade ago.
The third outcome is Blackwell's defeat by another social conservative, like current South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson or Chip Saltsman, Mike Huckabee's former campaign manager. That would give religious conservatives a powerful voice in the RNC without seeing the installation of their dream candidate. It's the least dramatic option, and perhaps also the least likely.
- Read more about the race for RNC chair.
- Read more by Dan Gilgoff.
Tags: Republicans | religion
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (4) | Print
Reader Comments
s You
I am amazed with it. It is a good thing for my research. Thanks
Race for RNC Chair
After a quarter of a century as a Republican, I was driven from the party in 2000 by the religious right. I worked for the old John McCain that year until religious fundamentalist began to attack his honor and his family with lies; a truly Christian thing to do. I knew then that the Republican Party had lost its soul.
I was saddened by the hollow shell of a compromised man John McCain had become this year. The religious right is like a cancer that eats away at the party. It is time to remember that our Consitution mandates a separation of church and state for two good reasons. First, when government is involved in religion, we all lose our religous liberty. Second, when religion is involved in government, we govern by dogma rather than reason.
The Republican Party has become the party that rejects science, abuses gays and women, wages war as a crusade, coddles bad business because it is business, and divides this nation on religious and racist grounds. The Republican Party ideals have driven this nation to the brink of collapse. The RNC needs leadership like Teddy Roosevelt, not James Dobson.
Race for the RNC Chair
I would like to se a true Conservation like Ken Blackwell run our party. The problem we conservatives have right now is everyone wants to move to the middle. President George W. Bush tried too much to appease the moderate in our party. It doesn't work and never will. The conservatives spent money like it was going out of style and the President did nothing to rein them in. The war I approve of, however we never declared war and that is why the President took a beating. I am fed up with the policitians putting themselves first so they can get reelected. In the Presidential race we put forward John McCain who, in my opinion is a Democrat and he cried when we did not vote for him and he denagrated Sarah Palin for his loss......Nonsense!!! I will not give another cent to the RNC or a Republican Candidate unless they prove they are a conservative. The Republicans put Barach Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid in there and now they can live with it.For all the people who believe President George W. Bush is responsible for the economical crisis I say "think again." It is the Federal Reserve and Congress who have not done their job. Oh! and by the way. It has been a Democratic Congress for two years. We had good financial times when the Congress was Republican, for which, President Bill Clinton takes the kudos. June M. Fullerton, Bakersfield, CA
advertisement
