Rudy does end run around the right’s leaders

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner in national polls, has avoided meeting with the nation’s most powerful socially conservative leaders, and instead is taking his appeal directly to conservative activists at the local level.

{mosads}Giuliani has not met with the leaders who make up the Arlington Group, a coalition of influential conservatives who have met as a group with Giuliani’s chief rivals, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Giuliani is also the only major Republican candidate who has not responded to an invitation to attend a briefing later this month sponsored by the Family Research Council, a prominent advocacy group representing evangelical Christians.
Giuliani knows that meeting with groups of highly ideological conservative leaders, many of them based in and around Washington, would not be easy, and could become confrontational very quickly.

“You have a whole group of evangelical Christians who will not support him,” said Paul Weyrich, a member of the Arlington Group, in reference to Giuliani. “Absolutely will not.

“I will not back Giuliani,” he added.

Weyrich, a founder of the modern social conservative movement and chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, predicted that in the general election many values-driven Republican voters would stay home if Giuliani is the nominee.
Another conservative leader, Mike Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, also voiced opposition to Giuliani.

“Giuliani can’t win,” he said. “There are millions of people including me who will not vote for him.”

Farris said Giuliani held objectionable views on abortion and homosexuality and said his private life also raised concerns. Giuliani has married three times and has a rocky relationship with his children. 

Farris, who has joined members of the Arlington Group in their interviews of Republican presidential hopefuls, said that Giuliani in the White House would be more damaging to social conservatives’ policy objectives than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Farris said that Giuliani and Clinton are similarly liberal on social issues. The difference is that Republicans in Congress would oppose Clinton’s agenda while they would feel obliged to support Giuliani, he said. Farris has endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) for president. 

Over the weekend, leading national social conservatives, such as Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, met in Salt Lake City to draft a resolution expressing their willingness to support a third party candidate if the Republican Party nominates a “pro-abortion” candidate, according to The New York Times. Giuliani has said he would favor providing federal funds to women denied the “right” to an abortion because they could not afford one.

 A Giuliani campaign official said that Giuliani does not need the support of the nation’s leading social conservatives to mobilize conservative activists. The official said that while Giuliani may not have met with the powerful conservatives who make up the Arlington Group, he has met with many rank-and-file conservative activists.

The official noted that in March Giuliani attended CPAC, an annual conference of conservative activists sponsored by the American Conservative Union. The aide also cited Giuliani’s recent participation at the National Federation of Republican Women’s convention in California.

Giuliani’s campaign has pointed to appeals the candidate has made to conservative gatherings directly. For example, Giuliani made an appearance at the Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club and delivered a speech to the Hoover Institution in Washington. The Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution are conservative think tanks. He also spoke at Regent University, a Christian institution of higher learning.

Giuliani’s campaign also highlighted his planned attendance Friday at a summit organized by Americans for Prosperity.
Some social conservatives may question whether an appearance at the Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club qualifies as meeting with the conservative grassroots. And the Defending the American Dream summit organized by Americans for Prosperity is focused on tax policy, federal spending, and government regulation — not the red-meat issues that impassion social conservatives.

Giuliani has also met with second-tier conservative leaders. At Regent, he met with the Rev. Pat Robertson, a prominent Christian leader whose influence among social conservatives has waned in recent years. Giuliani has also met with Jonathan Falwell, son and successor of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, said a person close to the campaign. 

A Republican strategist said that Giuliani is smart to circumvent the social conservative leaders who are irreconcilably opposed to him and appeal directly to the conservative base.

 “Giuliani needs to make a direct appeal to voters of faith that he will appoint conservative judges and favor common sense restrictions on abortion at the federal level, and in the end that is probably more important than any good housekeeping seal of approval from a particular pro-family leader,” said the strategist.

Giuliani’s campaign did just that on Tuesday when it unveiled its “Justice Advisory Committee.”

The committee, which includes conservative stalwarts such as Ted Olson, the former solicitor general of the United States, and Miguel Estrada, a former circuit court judicial appointee filibustered by Democrats, will advise Giuliani on legal and policy issues, including judicial appointments. 

Giuliani’s strategy has helped him maintain a high level of support among rank-and-file conservatives even while he snubs the nation’s most powerful socially conservative leaders.

The Giuliani campaign cited recent national polls showing him leading all other Republican candidates among self-identified conservative and religious voters.

A Gallup Poll report published Sept. 28 showed that Giuliani leads among conservatives, voters who attend church regularly, Protestants, Christians and Catholics.

Giuliani received support from 30 percent of conservative Republicans, compared to Thompson and Romney, who received 23 percent and 10 percent support, respectively.

The polling data also showed 27 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who attend church weekly support Giuliani. Of this group, 24 percent endorsed Thompson and 9 percent identified with Romney.

The data was drawn from 1,690 interviews conducted in August and September.