USA Today: GOP's commitment on social issues tested

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-05-20-gop-social-issues_N.htm

GOP's commitment on social issues tested

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Bill Carswell has voted for numerous Republican presidential candidates who oppose abortion, even though he supports legal abortion. This year, he has finally found a candidate who agrees with him.

Rudy Giuliani's abortion views "are in line with mine," Carswell, 54, a food service manager at the College of Charleston, said last week after a Giuliani town meeting here. "It's a personal decision. It's up to the individual."

Carswell says he votes "for leadership" and that's why he overlooked the anti-abortion views of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and others. The big question now is whether social conservatives are willing to make the same calculation as they weigh who would be their party's strongest nominee.

At least two prominent figures — Focus on the Family President James Dobson and Republican strategist Richard Viguerie — already have supplied an answer. They won't vote for Giuliani. "I will personally work to defeat the GOP ticket in 2008" if he is the nominee, Viguerie said.

For decades, Christian conservatives have turned out in Republican primaries and had great influence. Giuliani's candidacy is testing their clout, and some analysts predict it will be a turning point. "The era of the religious right being able to call the tune to which Republican candidates will dance is over," says GOP strategist Rich Galen, a self-described moderate who was in Columbia for last week's Republican debate.

Ed Goeas, Giuliani's pollster, also sees a change from past elections. "We may clearly be in a time period where the social issues are not going to be any more dominant than economic and national defense issues,"

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