Coming Soon: The Value Voters Debate Minus the GOP Top Tier
September 12, 2007
Have you heard about the Values Voters debate in Fort Lauderdale next Monday? You can read more here. Pro-Family leaders will ask the Republican presidential candidates questions. But Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson won’t be there.
The Brody File contacted their campaigns as to why they’re not showing up.
Kevin Madden, Mitt Romney’s National Campaign Spokesman says, “We haven't committed to any additional debates for the month of September. Scheduling commitments elsewhere in the country that day prevented us from being able to attend on this date.”
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Rudy Giuliani’s campaign tells The Brody File, “While we would like to attend each debate we’re being asked to participate in, our campaign has made some tough decisions about the number we can realistically participate in due to the accelerated primary calendar and fundraising demands.”
The Giuliani campaign also sent me a letter from their Campaign manager to Ross Conley, a member of the Values Voter Presidential Debate Committee:
Dear Mr. Conley,
Thank you for your kind invitation for Mayor Giuliani to attend a presidential debate hosted by Values Voters. Unfortunately Mayor Giuliani will be unable to accept your invitation.
Mayor Giuliani is committed to providing voters with a variety of settings to evaluate their next President, and he strongly believes that a series of debates should be an important part of the primary process.
We thank you for your commitment to participating in the 2008 presidential campaign.
I’m still waiting for the response from the Thompson campaign. I will post it when it comes in.
During the debate, questions will come from people all over the country but the social conservative leaders who will be asking questions will be: Paul Weyrich, Founder and President of the Free Congress Foundation; Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum; Don Wildmon of the American Family Association; Judge Roy Moore, columnist at WND and head of the Foundation for Moral Law and Rick Scarborough of Vision America.
These are not lightweights. They help mobilize millions of Americans at the grassroots level. I understand why Giuliani wouldn’t attend. There’s really no upside for him considering his moderate views. But you would think this would be a place where Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson could assert themselves and say, “Here I am. Fire away. I am the candidate for the social conservatives.” Instead, they don’t show and leave Mike Huckabee on the stage to make that claim.
I would point out two things here. Mitt Romney has committed to speak at the Value Voters Summit in Washington. This is put on by The Family Research Council and will be a pretty big deal for social conservatives as well. Also, in defense of all the candidates, they have tough decisions to make between debates and fundraising. A crucial fundraising deadline is fast approaching so that is very important. As for the debates, they can’t do all of them. They just need to hope that skipping this one doesn’t come back to bite them later on.
Religious and conservative "values voters" are among those in high demand right now. Republicans want to keep them; Democrats want to sway them.
Political observers say every vote will count in 2008, a time when the balance of power in Congress could swing more heavily to Democrats or bounce back to Republicans.
"GOP presidential candidates underestimate values voters at their own peril," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Virginia-based nonprofit Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group. "One only needs to look back at 2006 to recognize the disastrous consequences for Republican candidates who failed to motivate this influential bloc of voters."
Estimates show that 4 million evangelicals chose not to vote in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush lost the popular presidential vote to Democrat Al Gore.
But things were different in 2004, when 26.3 percent of voters identified with the evangelical perspective, said Mark G. Toulouse, a religion professor at Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School. In 2006, he said, evangelicals made up more than 30 percent of those who voted. At least in 2006, a strong evangelical turnout did not translate to GOP success.
"I think those on the right showed up in 2004 and showed up in 2006," Toulouse said. "It is more likely that trends among evangelicals ... moved in Democratic directions and helped sway congressional elections toward the Democrats."
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