Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404140350
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER Note: above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A newly energized religious right has crushed old-guard Republican moderates in a handful of local party elections and is eyeing higher leadership posts in a fight for the soul of the Virginia GOP.
The godfather in this movement is not Oliver North or Jim Miller, the pair slugging it out for the U.S. Senate nomination. Neither is he party Chairman Patrick McSweeney nor even Gov. George Allen.
It is Michael Farris, who expanded and galvanized religious activists into the largest voting block in the Virginia Republican Party in his unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor last year.
Longtime Portsmouth GOP leader Col. Max Chapman knows firsthand the power of this new faction.
``This bunch of peasants,'' as the 79-year-old retired Marine calls them, tossed his wife, Helen, out of the local chairmanship last month. ``They all got together for breakfast at a Southside church and came over as a gang. They carried on like a bunch of tigers with a new bone.''
Caroline Barnes, the 43-year-old nurse-turned-home schooler-turned-politician who won the chairmanship, said of Chapman, ``You have to be careful he doesn't hit you with his cane.''
In her view, the Republican Party was dominated by ``elitists'' and was due for a cleaning to open up room for the religious right. Old-liners are still welcome - ``We need the wisdom, but we will not tolerate the liberalism, the Republicrats,'' she said.
New leadership from, or allied with, the religious right has taken over chairs in a half-dozen localities in the past month and is planning challenges for about half the leadership slots at congressional district conventions next month.
The spiritual leader, if reluctant commander, of this crusade is Farris. The conservative home-school advocate swept onto the Republican scene last year, unnerving old-timers who fear his fervent followers will take the GOP too far to the right.
Farris says he is not out to take over the Republican Party by force - that he wants his self-described ``Wal-Mart Republicans'' to assimilate, building themselves into the party structure as he eyes a challenge to incumbent John Warner for the party's Senate nomination in 1996.
``There are some local situations where people are riding my bike trail, but not my bike,'' Farris said. ``What you are seeing is the modest steps of a general trend to open the party.''
But Farris now commands what Republicans on both ends of the spectrum acknowledge is the biggest and best-organized faction in the party. And his shadow looms over any intraparty fight, fueling speculation that he is moving to take control of the party apparatus and the nomination battle he clearly relishes against Warner, an outspoken critic of Farris' conservative positions.
Farris said he actually has written endorsement letters in only seven intraparty leadership contests, for strong supporters or volunteers in his campaign last year.
Several of those contests feature a continuation of the personal bickering between Allen and McSweeney, a dispute Farris desperately wants to avoid.
But by recruiting strong Farris allies to challenge Allen loyalists, McSweeney has forced Farris into the fray. That has happened in the 10th District in Northern Virginia, where Chairman Jim Rich, a strong supporter of the governor, is challenged by a longtime friend of Farris'. And it has happened in Allen's home district, the 7th, where one of Farris' former top campaign volunteers is running against Chairwoman June Funkhouser, a political mentor Allen affectionately calls ``Ma.''
Support from the religious right also is a key element in the Senate nomination battle for both North and Miller. Most appear to back North, although ``one of the trademarks of this group is they are very difficult to pin down,'' said Fairfax County Chairman Pat Mullins.
``I heard a guy just the other day say Ollie North is just renting the Farris machine,'' said Rod Reed, a 37-year-old church worker who was just elected chairman in Spotsylvania County. ``I think that's true to a great extent. I don't know that Ollie could have built this organization by himself.''
But Reed said his election and others around the state show that the religious right is coming of age. ``You wouldn't believe the changes in the party. Nobody wants to be seen as a moderate right now.''
Republicans seeking to keep or attain leadership positions ``had better not offend the religious right. They are the largest voting block in the Republican party,'' Reed said.
Mostly, Farris says, the takeovers are being engineered without his direction. ``There were a few spots last year where the party wasn't really open,'' Farris said. ``In some places the party didn't really want the big tent, and people got upset with that.''
Mullins said that since many of Farris' followers were new to politics last year, they became frustrated when they were denied power. ``Mike only got involved last year,'' he said. ``There is a great lack of his people in leadership positions in the party.''
``These are people who just want fair play,'' said Carol Mann, who is running for chairman in the 1st Congressional District with the backing of the religious right.
``I don't know that it's a move by the Christian right, they just want fair play. These are people who've been excluded. A lot of the regulars are intimidated by the large number of people Mike Farris energized. [But] a lot of these people are here to stay, because they realize they have to be part of the process to have an impact.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB