Conservatives rallied against McCain

Richmond, Va.-- As former Virginia Gov. George Allen--the certain GOP Senate nominee here this year--was addressg a conservative forum at the Holiday Inn Select three days before the state's Republican presidential primary, the vibrations were strong that both conservative activists and party stalwarts were going to secure a victory for Texas Gov. George W. Bush over Arizona Sen. John McCain.

With Bush's tracking polls giving him a four-point lead statewide on the weekend before the balloting, Allen joined with Lt. Gov. John Hager and GOP National Committeeman Morton Blackwell (a former Steve Forbes supporter) to underscore their support for Bush.

The night before, Republican Gov. James Gilmore had rallied more than 1,200 activists to support the Bush cause at the state party banquet in Richmond. Earlier in the week, Gilmore and his political operatives had overseen six statewide mailings and ten thousands of get-out-the-vote calls on Bush's behalf.

But most pundits and pols later agreed that what turned a probable slim Bush win into a nine-point romp was McCain's harshly worded attack on Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell--and, by extension, religious conservatives in general--in Virginia Beach the day before the voting (see story above). According to exit polls conducted by Voter News Service, a whopping 81% of voters who consider themselves Christian conserva. tives-an estimated 19% of the total primary vote-supported Bush over McCain. (The same survey showed McCain with only a 6-point advantage among those voters who did not consider themselves Christian conservatives).

McCain's broadside against Robertson and Falwell also appeared to undercut his support among groups other than, Christian conservatives---an indication that Republicans of all stripes accept Christian conservatives as a key part of the GOP coalition.

Noting that Bush trounced McCain by more than 2 to I among all Virginia voters who considered themselves Republicans, state Bush campaign operative Ray Allen, Jr., told reporters: "Even conservatives who don't consider themselves religious conservatives know whose team they're on.

"Conservatives in general realized that McCain was trying to return us to the pre-Reagan days, before traditional values conservatives became a part of the Republican Party in a big way and helped us create a majority," National Committeeman Blackwell told HumAN EVENTS.

The Voters News Service indicated that among those Virginians who considered moral values the chief criterion in a candidate, 61 % chose Bush and only 34% chose McCain.

Ammo for Democrats

Similar evidence that McCain's bashing of the "religious right" had boomeranged was also found in Washington (a state known for electing more moderate Republicans), which selected 12 of its 37 delegates in a primary held the same day as Virginia's. Among Republican voters (whose votes were the only ones counted for allocating delegates), Bush beat McCain by 58% to 38%.

'I'm certain that McCain's attacks on religious conservatives worked against him among Republican primary voters and I can cite some personal experiences," 1988 Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Williams told HumAN EvENTs. Williams, who made little secret of his strong religious faith and support for traditional values, recalled that when he sought the GOP gubernatorial nod, a more moderate primary opponent as well as much of the local media hammered him as a tool of the "religious right." Nonetheless, he won by a margin of greater than 3 to 2 statewide.

"[Attacking the religious right] is a very bad strategy in a Republican nomination fight, as we've seen here, and it just mobilizes conservatives against the attacker," said Williams. Then he added that it is also bad because in November "a lib-- eral Democrat can dust off all the things your losing primary opponent said."

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 10, 2000
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