ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997 TAG: 9704240049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reed has tried to shake the ``religious right'' label and to build relations with Jews and blacks.
Anxious to take a more direct role in Republican campaigns, Ralph Reed said Wednesday he was resigning from the post he used to build Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition into a conservative political powerhouse.
With Reed as its executive director, the 8-year-old group grew into a major force in Republican and national politics.
When Robertson offered him the job in 1989, Reed said, religious conservatives ``were often treated as marginal or nominal forces in American politics.'' But he said these voters helped Republicans gain control of Congress in 1994 and now must be considered ``one of the most potent and well-organized forces in all of American politics.''
Reed emerged as one of the conservative movement's leading strategists, shrewd and cutthroat at times, pragmatic at others, always with a boyish face that critics say helped mask what they consider an extremist agenda.
``Pat Robertson just lost the most talented front man any politician could ever want,'' said Carole Shields, president of the liberal People for the American Way.
Reed, 35, said he would step down Sept. 1 to start Century Strategies, a political consulting firm likely to have its headquarters in Atlanta with offices in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. He said he would assist conservative candidates in 1998 and 2000.
Reed will remain on the Christian Coalition board and assist in the search for a successor. The transition comes at a difficult time for Robertson's group.
Last summer, the Federal Election Commission sued the coalition, charging it violated the law by providing in-kind help to several Republicans, including then-President Bush in 1992.
The coalition also is under investigation by the U.S. attorney in Norfolk, who is looking into allegations of financial irregularities made by a former coalition bookkeeper. The organization also could face scrutiny from a Senate investigation into 1996 campaign activities.
Critics assert the group routinely crosses the line governing political activities of tax-exempt organizations. ``Rather than elevate the role of religion in politics, Reed's activities have dragged it into the gutter,'' said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Dozens of conservative politicians and leaders, however, issued statements praising Reed. ``He has been an exceptional leader in the movement to insure that the voices of families and people of faith are heard within the political process,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.
Over eight years, the Christian Coalition's budget has swelled from $200,000 to $27 million. It has chapters in all 50 states and counts dozens of its members in local and state Republican Party leadership positions.
Using a network of churches, the coalition distributed 45 million voter guides last year. Critics assert these pamphlets are tilted to benefit Republicans.
The coalition has been a leading force in pressuring the Republican Party to maintain its opposition to abortion and to promote legislation allowing prayer in public schools. It also was a leading backer of legislation, passed last year, that allows states to refuse to recognize gay marriages.
At the same time, Reed has tried to shake the ``religious right'' label by expanding the coalition's issue portfolio to include calls for tax cuts to families with children, and smaller government with less federal power. And he has tried to build relations with Jewish leaders and black churches, repeatedly calling on white evangelicals to acknowledge that many of their leaders were on the wrong side of the civil rights movement.
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