Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050524
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS and ROBB EURE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Today, after a dozen years of losses, Republicans stand at a similar crossroads. They are poised to try a different approach, however.
Instead of moving to the center, up to 14,000 delegates gathering at the Richmond Coliseum appear likely to nominate the most conservative of three candidates for governor. And their front-runner for lieutenant governor is a home-schooling advocate who almost certainly will be branded a radical right-winger by opponents.
In interviews, many party leaders and convention delegates say there is no need to change their election formula. A fresh dose of tax-and-spend liberalism from President Clinton and a decade of arrogance from Virginia Democrats will drive voters to them, they contend.
"You can't be too conservative," said Jackie deBoisblance of Stafford, who, like many delegates, is attending her first convention to vote for Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
"You can't compromise," added deBoisblance's daughter, Brooks Coleman. "Compromising is giving away a little bit of yourself."
But others in the party fear that the risk of intransigence is great.
If the convention nominates the front-runners, former Rep. George Allen of Charlottesville, Farris and Henrico prosecutor James Gilmore for attorney general, "I would think all would lose," said Joanna Campen, a Midlothian housewife supporting their opponents. `It sends a message that, yes, we're out of the mainstream . . . Politics is the art of compromise."
Campen and deBoisblance framed the debate that won't be heard during today's speeches and floor fights at the convention: Has the Republican Party of Virginia become a creature of the Christian right?
Allen's rivals are Northern Virginia businessman Earle Williams and Del. Clinton Miller of Woodstock. Former White House aide Bobbie Kilberg is opposing Farris. Del. Steven Agee of Salem is challenging Gilmore.
Most party leaders deny that Christian conservatives dominate. They argue privately that only about one-third of party members are social conservatives, zealously opposing abortion and gay rights and urging a return to godliness in public institutions, particularly schools. About half of the party members remain old-school Republicans motivated largely by economic conservatism, while a much smaller faction are moderates, GOP leaders say.
But the ease with which Farris has come from nowhere to the threshold of statewide nomination proves the influence of the conservative movement.
The movement's leaders say the Christian right may not dominate the party, but it has the clout to demand that candidates pay homage to its issues. And when truly motivated by a candidate such as Farris, the right can claim a nomination.
Even Republicans drawn to the party by economic conservatism acknowledge the religious right's potential power when it is ignited. "They can do it [control a nomination] if everybody else is complacent," said James Wheat III, a Richmond investment banker.
The growth of the Christian right in the party tracks a series of prominent conservative campaigns for GOP offices throughout the 1980s: Guy Farley's 1981 campaign for lieutenant governor, Richard Viguerie's run for the same spot four years later and Pat Robertson's run for president in 1988.
All three men lost, but Kevin Gentry, vice chairman of the Fairfax County Republicans and a young leader in the conservative movement, points out there was lasting impact on the party.
"Every time a conservative has run in Virginia they brought new people into the party and some of them stayed," he said.
The unanswered question, if Farris beats Kilberg, is whether the Christian right has finally achieved majority strength or benefitted from a poorly run Kilberg campaign.
Had Farris faced a tougher, more mainstream conservative, "this would be a much different race," said Mark Obenshain, Rockbridge County GOP chairman.
Farris disputes those who say he has an inflexible, right-wing agenda that will torpedo the ticket in the fall.
In an interview, Farris said if nominated he will talk mostly about debt reduction and educational and legal reform. "If I were just running on my base, I wouldn't be talking about those things," he said. "I'm running to win. If I just wanted to make a point, I'd write another book."
Farris argued that he brings balance to a ticket that is likely to feature candidates for governor and attorney general who are more moderate on some social issues. "What I do for the gubernatorial candidate is, I allow him to run on the issues he wants. . . . I free up the gubernatorial candidate.
"I'll reduce the total number of words that need to be spoken about social conservatism. I'll bring those people," he said.
Party leaders also insist that this year's ticket will have advantages over the losers of the 1980s, even if the philosophical formula is largely the same.
For instance, none of the three candidates for governor has taken the unequivocal anti-abortion position adopted by former Attorney General Marshall Coleman when he ran in 1989.
The party leaders hope also that the public will focus on the failings of Democrats more than in past years. The escalating controversies surrounding the Clinton White House give them hope, as does the ongoing feud between U.S. Sen. Charles Robb and Gov. Douglas Wilder.
In a video unveiled Friday, party leaders presented a thematic agenda that they hope will take the focus off emotional issues such as abortion and home schooling and onto "failed" Democratic leadership.
"This is what our government has become during 12 years of the Democrats' domination: secrecy, absenteeism, cronyism, arrogance, childishness, broken promises, scandal, and embarrassment," the announcer says.
State GOP Chairman Patrick McSweeney said he believes the broad issues outlined in the video - including the growth in state spending and debt, educational decline, and a broken welfare system - will ultimately be more important to voters than the makeup of a particular candidate.
"The personality of candidates is not nearly as important as the agenda we establish," he said. "It shouldn't matter a heck of a whole lot who the candidates are . . . It's a cluster of values" that will ultimately decide the elections.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB