Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: ST. LOUIS LENGTH: Medium
GOP HEAD URGES `INCLUSION'
Republican officials elected a former aide to Ronald Reagan as their new party leader Friday but remained mired in disarray, dividing over a call by departing Chairman Rich Bond for the party to dispense with anti-abortion planks and other social "litmus tests."Haley Barbour, 45, a Mississippi lawyer who was Reagan's director of political affairs and left to form a private consulting and lobbying firm, was selected as chairman of the 165-member Republican National Committee after two of four rivals for the party leadership post withdrew from the contest.
Barbour won with a 90-vote majority on the third ballot, outdistancing his nearest rival, Michigan conservative Spencer Abraham, by 33 votes. Two other opponents for the job, departing Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft and Oregon party leader Craig Berkman, dropped out after a second ballot, and most of their supporters defected to Barbour. Former Secretary of the Army Howard H. "Bo" Calloway had 19 votes.
Barbour pledged to committee members after the vote that he would work to renew the party's local and state organizations and told the party loyalists gathered in a Hyatt Regency hotel ballroom that they should "project that we're the party of inclusion, which we are."
Throughout the second day of the party's first major gathering since George Bush was ousted from the presidency in November, ranking party stalwarts emphasized that Republicans needed to project a "big tent" image to the nation.
Although neither Barbour nor Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., who also spoke to the committee, elaborated on their calls for inclusion, the inference was clear to most committee members.
"We don't want to repeat Houston," said Phyllis Acklie, the wife of Nebraska committeeman Duane Acklie. Her reference was to the widespread notion that the Bush campaign effort was crippled by catering to social conservatives during last year's national convention in Houston.
Committee members remained divided over the steps they need to take to erect their tent. In his last speech as chairman, Bond - who was criticized for his running of the Houston convention - offered a frank admission of mistakes and urged the party to soften its rigid positions on abortion, gay rights and other issues dear to social conservatives.
"I've done a lot of soul-searching," Bond said, adding: "Our job is not to administer litmus tests on any issue or to be the champions of any single cause."