Religious Conservatives Hold on in Iowa

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 1, 2007 | MIKE GLOVER

[FairOpinion]

White evangelicals made up one-third of the electorate in Iowa in the 2004 presidential election, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks. Two-thirds of them voted for George W. Bush.

Nationally, evangelicals were 23 percent of the electorate in 2004 and they voted overwhelmingly for Bush.

Republicans suffered a dramatic setback in Iowa in the midterm elections with a Democrat winning the governor's office and Republicans losing two seats in Congress. In addition, both chambers of the state Legislature rolled to Democratic control, and Scheffler acknowledged that a main reason was that religious conservatives sat it out.

According to AP-Ipsos polling in March, white evangelical Christians look like Republicans generally in terms of their support for the current field of candidates. Giuliani leads McCain 37 percent to 18 percent among evangelical Republicans nationally. Support for all other candidates was in the single digits

. "I think they are looking at electability and they are looking at people who are fiscally and socially conservative," Popma said.

[KATIE-O]

".......My guess is that it's a much more visceral, almost primordial thing: Conservatives are just sick of Girly-Men Republicans [Dubyah, Frist, McCain, Hastert, Gingrich, DeWine, Chafee, Graham, Hatch, Gonzales, etc etc etc] who bend over and grab their ankles at the first sign of DEM pugilism......."

I think you are right. Bush started out OK but has long since been whipped down by the media and the Dems. The mistakes made at the beginning of the war have really come back to haunt him and the Dems are taking full advantage of his weak poll numbers. I want to see a Rudy Giuliani tear the face off of a Ted Kennedy or a Harry Reid and drop kick Nancy Pelosi back to The Peoples Republic of San Francisco. I'm ready for it!

[yuta250]

I think you're right about his tough guy image being appealing, it's his tough liberal guy image reality that I'm worried about.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

After reading the entire article (interesting that the AP would write such a long article about religious conservatives) it strikes me that they want to help divide the GOP.

[no dems]

My fervent hope is that conservatives have learned their lesson after 2006, when THEY HANDED control of Congress to the Democrats

EXCUSE ME!!! I don't think it was the conservative electorate who handed the 2006 election to the DemocRATS. It was the likes of George W. Bush and the "do nothing but spend like drunken sailor" Congress, the most corrupt bunch of Republicans ever to sit in a Congress and the pedophile hypocrite, Mark Foley.

Don't blame the conservatives. BLAME THE PEOPLE WHO LIED TO US TO GET OUR VOTES AND THEN BETRAYED US, BUCKO.

[no dems]

This will move a LOT of Republicans to the middle and they will leave their social conservatism at home.

Don't count on it. Besides, as closely divided as this nation is, if just a small percentage set-out an election, it could tilt the outcome.

[JTC1767]

Excellent post.

With the release of Hillary's fund raising figures today, it's more important than ever to have a BLOWOUT TURNOUT among conservatives if we are going to avoid the disgrace and tragedy of yet another Clinton administration!

[Peach]

Since so many articles, such as this one, say that social conservatives sat home and just watched good conservatives like Santorum and Hayworth go down, do you honestly think the GOP is going to move toward MORE social conservatism? Oh, my. You couldn't be more wrong.

[Wormwood]

Your premise is deeply flawed.

Women and first-time voters rejected the GOP in unprecedented numbers in 2006. The fallout of alienating these swing voters will be felt acutely in 2008.

[Gondring]

Rudy is emblematic of the very reasons that many Republicans stayed home in '06 .

Very well put.

[WOSG]

"My fervent hope is that conservatives have learned their lesson after 2006, when THEY HANDED control of Congress to the Democrats -- and I hope they are watching the consequences, recognizing their complicity in putting the Democrats into power."

Hmmm.... I dont recall being mark Foley, voting for a bad immigration bill that split our base, defaulting on promises to be fiscally responsible, or letting the media destroy the administration's credibility on 'competence'.

If we want to win in 2008 we have to recover the 'character' and 'competence' issues ... beating up on the social conservatives is way down the list of things needed to win.

Also ... voters will stay home if they are ignored or are told their issues don't matter .... how well will we hold on to the 1/4 of the electorate that are evangelicals if the GOP ignores that segment????

[etlib]

your factions insistence on nominating a liberal will only make matters worse in 08. Conservatives will not turn out for a liberal, and they will not be enthusiastic about getting out the vote for a liberal. In the end, the votes gained from having a liberal nominee will not make up for those lost from the Republican base.

It's you who haven't learned the lesson.

AMEN!

[etlib]

With the release of Hillary's fund raising figures today, it's more important than ever to have a BLOWOUT TURNOUT among conservatives if we are going to avoid the disgrace and tragedy of yet another Clinton administration!

Then we better nominate a real conservative.

[FairOpinion]

"Then we better nominate a real conservative."

Sure, so Hillary can beat him by an 80/20 margin.

Fewer pledge allegiance to the GOP

The survey, by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found a "dramatic shift" in political party identification since 2002, when Republicans and Democrats were at rough parity. Now, 50% of those surveyed identified with or leaned toward Democrats, whereas 35% aligned with Republicans.

What's more, the survey found, public attitudes are drifting toward Democrats' values: Support for government aid to the disadvantaged has grown since the mid-1990s, skepticism about the use of military force has increased and support for traditional family values has decreased.

[SE Mom]

Let's hope that they help nominate an electable Republican candidate, who can and will beat Hillary, instead of doing a repeat of 2006, staying home and handing over full control of the US -- control of all three branches of the government -- to Hillary and the Democrats.

---

I couldn't agree with you more. The candidate- though as yet unannounced- who can do that has my full support. His name is Fred Thompson.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Is "historical trends" the Newspeak term for "Iraq"?

Do some research, Herr FReeper.

The party that controlled Congress lost it in the sixth year of the President's term.

This has been a fact since the late 1800s.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

With the release of Hillary's fund raising figures today, it's more important than ever to have a BLOWOUT TURNOUT among conservatives if we are going to avoid the disgrace and tragedy of yet another Clinton administration!

We're not going to turn out if the Republican is just as liberal as the Democrat.

[Colorado Buckeye]

This will move a LOT of Republicans to the middle and they will leave their social conservatism at home.

And anyone from Texas or Oklahoma can tell you what happens to those wandering around in the middle.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I agree. There is no excitement for any of them. I'm waiting for Fred. Hopefully, he can be a uniter.

We get one candidate after the other coming to Iowa. I only go see them if they're very close.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

NO. But the RATS in control of the legislature and the new gov are working on it.

[no dems]

Hayworth was certainly a disastrous loss as was Santorum.

I was really pulling for Santorum but his loss can't be totally blamed on Evangelicals staying home. Many non-Evangelical Conservatives had some "held over resentment" toward him for endorsing and working for the ultra-liberal, diabolical Arlen Specter against a great Conservative, Pat Toomey.

Hayworth was a fatality resulting from the do-nothing GOP Congress and White House and a poorly managed war with a Commander in Chief who failed to communicate to the American people.

Nice try Peach. But, you can't blame the Evangelicals. There's plenty of blame to go around. As my daddy used to say: "If you're gonna dance, you have to pay the fiddler."