Californians rejected McCain's religious war

Newport Beach, Calif'-Before the presidential primary results were reported here last Tuesday, GOP Representatives Chris Cox and Jim Rogan, key local Bush supporters, were warming up a raucous Republican crowd.

The wild cheers that greeted these two conservative stalwarts symbolized what the evening's election results would dramatically demonstrate: Conservative are firmly in the driver's seat of the California GOP

Virtually all sources I spoke with agreed that Bush could not have taken the primary here-and with it California's 162 national convention delegates-if h 'e had not emphasized traditional conservative issues, especially tax cuts and protection of life. It was also widely agreed that McCain's once high-flying campaign floundered in the state when he launched his now-famous attacks on the "religious right" and leaders such as Pat Robertson and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. "John McCain was doing well in California---extremely well, in fact-until he made those remarks in Virginia Beach,"said state Republican Chairman John McGraw. "That speech put it on the downward slide for him, no doubt."

McGraw, a conservative who remained neutral in the primary contest, recalled that prior to that speech, state-party tracking polls showed McCain in a near-fie for California's popular vote and gaining ground among registered Republicans (whose votes were the only ones that counted in the race for delegates). After the speech, McCain's numbers began dropping among likely voters who were Republicans. By primary day, there was no real contest,

"Our group was divided between George W. Bush and Alan Keyes," said Sergio Picchio, president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, the oldest GOP activist organization in the state. "I-went for Bush," he said, "because I felt he had the best chance of beating McCain, who lost conservatives altogether when he attacked Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and when he signaled that he would tamper with the prolife plank in the national party platform."

Ray Briem, a conservative talk-show host who did not endorse any candidate, agreed. "I think McCain finished any chance he had when he went off against Robertson and Falwell," Briem told me in Santa Monica two days before the primary. "Based on the calls I've been getting on the air, even those conservatives who consider themselves nonreligious resented an attack on a key group within the conservative coalition and the party."

According to the Los Angeles Times exit poll, fully one-quarter of California primary voters described themselves as "evangelical Christians."

-John Gizzi

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 17, 2000
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