Posted on 08/09/2003 5:53:00 AM PDT by madprof98
One of the most interesting aspects of the 2004 U.S. Senate race is something that hasn't happened --- so far.
Throughout the '90s, Rep. Johnny Isakson's relationship with the religious right was frosty, and when he cut an ad staking out his position on abortion in the 1996 Senate campaign, it turned downright frigid. For a while, the rap on Isakson was that he could do well in a statewide general election campaign but would have a hard time ever winning a Republican primary, because of opposition from religious conservatives.
That perception has changed. A number of religious conservatives are likely to find their way into the campaigns of Rep. Mac Collins and businessman Herman Cain, but nothing on the order of a crusade against Isakson seems to be forming. Isakson has been endorsed by Sen. Tommie Williams, a legislator with close ties to the religious right, and Rep. Jerry Keen, a past president of the state Christian Coalition.
"It's going to be split. It's not going to be all for one, or one for all," predicted Sadie Fields, chairwoman of the state Christian Coalition, about how religious conservatives will come down in the Senate race. That would be good news for Isakson.
Since his election to the U.S. House in a 1999 special election, Isakson has mended his fences, generally siding with religious conservatives on what Fields called the "peripheral life issues," such as stem cell research and late-term abortion. In the last Congress, his voting record got a 92 rating from the Christian Coalition and an 81 from the National Right to Life organization.
It also might be that religious conservatives are less prone to hold on to grudges than they used to be.
As Southeastern chairman of the Bush re-election campaign, Ralph Reed isn't taking sides in the Senate primary. But the former state GOP chairman and national director of the Christian Coalition credits Gov. Sonny Perdue's election with a change of attitude within the religious right.
"Sonny has given social conservatives a place at the table and an important role in the Republican majority that makes it less necessary for them to settle every other single score in the party," Reed said.
Although abortion is likely to remain the core issue for religious conservatives, the focus of their attention for the next election or so might be such recent developments as the U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared bans on homosexual activity unconstitutional and the appointment of an openly gay Episcopal bishop.
"There are a lot of things falling out now regarding the culture that have grabbed the attention of conservative Christians," Fields said.
Isakson has signed on as a co-sponsor of a House bill that would ban gay marriage. He isn't likely to be any further to the right on that issue than any of his Republican opponents, but the issue could have an inoculating effect nevertheless.
Keen said support by religious conservatives for the Bush administration, and the recent defeat in the Senate of judicial nominees supported by the religious right, are causing some intraparty differences to be put aside.
"You want people who'll support his policies," Keen said about the president, "and, if you're in the U.S. Senate, someone who'll confirm his nominees."
tbaxter@ajc.com
Same here. I'm sick of tired old Republican retreads. Mr. Cain is a good man. We need to give him a chance to serve.
Glad to hear it. I disbelieve nearly anything the AJC writes about- whether it's news or opinion.
The Savannah Morning News is still conservative, as is the Brunswick News, and the Florida Times-Union.
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