Religious Right Considers Third Party To Run Against Giuliani
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains the favorite in polls in the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination sweepstakes — but there are rumblings that his luck could run out.
Unlike Arizona Senator John McCain, who has been walking a political tightrope hoping to keep his old supporters and win over old foes — and falling off of the tightrope with politically un-astute statements – Giuliani has been surviving the bumps along the way.
But Salon reports that members of the Religious Right intend to blackball Giuliani and if necessary run a third party candidate against him, if he gets the GOP Presidential nomination:
A powerful group of conservative Christian leaders decided Saturday at a private meeting in Salt Lake City to consider supporting a third-party candidate for president if a pro-choice nominee like Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination.
The meeting of about 50 leaders, including Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who called in by phone, took place at the Grand America Hotel during a gathering of the Council for National Policy, a powerful shadow group of mostly religious conservatives. James Clymer, the chairman of the U.S. Constitution Party, was also present at the meeting, according to a person familiar with the proceedings.
“The conclusion was that if there is a pro-abortion nominee they will consider working with a third party,” said the person, who spoke to Salon on the condition of anonymity. The private meeting was not a part of the official CNP schedule, which is itself a closely held secret. “Dobson came in just for this meeting,” the person said.
Salon notes that this confirms the fears of many GOPers that a Giuliani nomination could split the GOP. Political scientist Larry Sabato mentioned this prospect about a year ago as well in one of his newsletters.
This would present the GOP with a prime dilemma.
If it loses part of its social conservatives, how can it make it up in vote totals when there are now indications that Hispanic and African American voters are not pleased with how they are treated by the key Republican candidates, and polls show the Republican Party losing independent and young voters in droves?
But all wouldn’t be lost for Giuliani if he got the nomination and there was a rightist party running against him.
It would make him look more centrist to some independent voters.
And there is one more factor:
It seems increasingly likely that Ralph Nader is going to make one more leap into the Presidential ring. Read THIS, THIS, …but is he running? Read THIS. But then there’s THIS.
In 2000 Nader insisted there was no difference between the two parties, something that proved slightly inaccurate. In 2004 he ran again, perhaps not with as much influence but some of his idealist aura was destroyed when it emerged that he was accepting money from some Republicans that hoped he’d siphon votes away from Democrats…and his organization defended taking the money.
Can Giuliani stem this possible danger to party unity, if he gets the nomination? His foes aren’t done yet:
Attendees at the Saturday afternoon meeting also discussed the possibility of recruiting another person to run for the Republican nomination, said the person familiar with the proceedings. Several names have already been floated, though no decision on a possible candidate has yet been made, the person said.
But that’s unlikely to work at this late time.
All of this taken together suggests one thing:
If a Giuliani candidacy seems to threaten GOP unity, look for some voters and party bigwigs to get behind another candidate — either actor Fred Thompson or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. McCain is self-destructing, Ron Paul is not the political pinup guy of Republican insiders and power-brokers.
And look for Ralph Nader to probably get a nice, big infusion of campaign funds, if he runs.
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10 Responses to “Religious Right Considers Third Party To Run Against Giuliani”
Since the cance of any Republican candidate winning the Presidency is extremely small, it does not really matter what the religious right does. Also, since the Republican party is becoming irrelevant much faster than anyone has anticipated, it does not matter what the long term consequences are.
Once again, the real question is what will American politics be like with only one functional party? The Democratic Party would like nothing better than to have an irrelevent Republican party around while holding a few seats in Congress and maybe the Senator positions in Alabama or Utah but will that be good for America?
Well, I’m sure that all this third party nonsense makes for good copy, but for the SALON writer to have noticed the hyper-secretive meeting of the “Council for National Policy” and have only come away with this Giuliani nonsense is akin to seeing an elephant at the zoo and only having noticed one hair on the trunk.
Dick Cheney arrived to kiss the ring, as did Mitt Romney, in one of the most blatant examples of theocracy we’ve yet seen. Details here.
It goes a lot deeper than just some conservative church leaders.
LET the Religious Right back a candidate from the Constitution Party – it will sink them so badly that they’ll never resurface!
I just don’t see what they’re worried about. Early polls or no I just don’t see anyone who doesn’t have the “blessing” of those folks winning the Republican primaries.
Sorry, all this talk about the reps being gone for good. So reminescent of dems just a few years ago… I am sure they will re-invent themselves, and that is partly what they are trying to do now in a haphazard and disorganized fashion. To say the reps seem more disorganizaed then the dems is a pretty odd thing, but there it is.
Hopefully the relgious right goes down the tubes. But regardless, I have my popcorn out and am watching a much more “interesting” race than on the dems side, where it seems mor or less static all sewn up.
Should the GOP choose to run a social conservative as a third party candidate, they’ll find themselves forced to get used to saying “Madame President” and the “First Laddie”, LOL.
[...] The Moderate Voice: “New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains the favorite in polls in the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination sweepstakes — but there are rumblings that his luck could run out. Unlike Arizona Senator John McCain, who has been walking a political tightrope hoping to keep his old supporters and win over old foes — and falling off of the tightrope with politically un-astute statements – Giuliani has been surviving the bumps along the way. But Salon reports that members of the Religious Right intend to blackball Giuliani and if necessary run a third party candidate against him, if he gets the GOP Presidential nomination.” [...]
The chance that religious conservatives would abandon the Republican party sounds like a great opportunity for Republicans in the long-term. The current coalition of social conservatives and fiscal conservatives has proven to be unworkable; the issues at the core of each side’s beliefs don’t overlap, and as a result one side will always dominate the other. Splitting into two parties would allow each to focus on a specific set of issues and allow voters to support whichever side they felt was more representative of their personal beliefs.
As a voter, gay marriage, abortion, and family values aren’t isssues I want the government focused on; instead I’d like a return to sound fiscal policy and competent governing. Others obviously feel differently, but currently neither of us has a single party that reflects how we want government to be run. Splitting those two groups into separate parties seems like it would benefit both.
There are a lot of of individuals and groups calling for third parties of various kinds, as no one seems happy with the the cuurrent two parteis we have.
I’m not sure that third parties would solve the state of contentiousness or make anyone happier, though.
Countires with multiple parties don’t seem to solve problems any better, and in some cases more problems are created than solved by this type of system.
Third parties deplete the power of the major parties, but do their really influence policy in a more forceful way? They still need to work by forming coalitions, but those coalitions are often more unstable that the caucuses within the Democratic Party, as an example.
The trend is to look for dramatic shanges in the system, but what is really needed is a change in attittude. If politicians were more willing to vote across party lines on particular issues, the same resutls could be achieved while retaining overall stability.
Changing attitudes is a tall order, but then, those same contentious attitudes would dominate a three or four party Congress.
If there is no core of sensible people interested in working for the good of the coutnry as a whole instead of stridently insisting on their own pet interests prevailing, then it hardly seems to matter how many parties are represented in Congress.
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