The Dobson way
An evangelical leader steps squarely into the political ring
Dobson, for his part, is ready to play hardball, having already sent letters to 1.2 million supporters in which he threatens to challenge six "red" and "purple" state Democratic senators up for re-election in 2006 if they filibuster Bush's conservative judicial nominees: Florida's Bill Nelson, Minnesota's Mark Dayton, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, North Dakota's Kent Conrad, New Mexico's Jeff Bingaman, and Nebraska's Ben Nelson. U.S News has learned that Focus, a network of 36 "state policy councils" associated with the group, and other Christian organizations are planning to capitalize on the success of the 11 state ballot initiatives outlawing same-sex marriage that passed in November to promote similar measures in up to 15 more states in the next two years. The initiatives' backers hope their success will make it harder for senators in Washington to withhold support for a federal marriage amendment. And Dobson is also keeping an eye on the GOP. "There's a window which may remain open only a short time to make critical changes," he said in a recent interview with U.S. News. "If Republicans . . . in the White House and Senate squander this opportunity, I believe they will pay a price for it in four years--and maybe in two."
Dobson has never been so baldly political. Before the election, he stepped down from the presidency of Focus (he's still chairman) to launch Focus on the Family Action, a fundraising and grass-roots organizing engine free of the political spending limits imposed on the nonprofit Focus. The move allowed Dobson to make his first presidential endorsement (for President Bush), to write to hundreds of thousands of Focus constituents in states with tight Senate races with political advice, and to appear in ads to unseat then Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Last fall, Dobson hosted huge "stand for family" rallies--widely seen as supportive of Republican candidates--in close Senate race states, while Focus helped distribute an eye-popping 8 million voting guides. "I can't think of anybody who had more impact than Dr. Dobson" on social conservatives this election, says Richard Viguerie, the GOP direct-mail pioneer. "He was the 800-pound gorilla."
At the same time, Dobson, 68, hasn't exhibited the personal political ambitions of televangelist Pat Robertson, former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed, who joined the Bush-Cheney re-election effort, or values crusader Gary Bauer, another onetime White House hopeful. But "Dobson is more prominent and popular right now than Robertson, Reed, or Bauer were at their high points," says John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "It's because his popularity didn't come from his work in politics. It came from his communications network."
That network dates to 1970, when Dobson published Dare to Discipline , an antidote to permissive parenting that eventually sold 3 million copies. Where child development guru Benjamin Spock had encouraged mothers to get in touch with their children's feelings, Dobson told parents to assert their authority in an age of moral relativism--through spanking, if necessary. "You, Mom and Dad, are the boss," Dobson writes in The New Strong-Willed Child , a recent update of a book originally published in 1978.
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