A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark

Insidecatholic.com ^ | 11/06/09 | Deal Hudson

[GonzoII]

A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark

by Deal W. Hudson   

11/06/09

The election results of November 2 were not merely the spontaneous reaction of Republicans to the bad economy and liberal excesses of the Obama administration. The four pro-life, conservative GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey were elected in a groundswell of religious and social conservatives, many of them independent voters who had voted for Obama only a year ago.

A new grassroots organization played a major role in getting these voters to the polls -- the Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, in May 2009. Starting only a few months before the election, Reed’s FFC was able to generate 4.5 million voter contacts in Virginia, New Jersey, and the 23rd Congressional District of New York for the November 2 election.

Reed began by hiring Jack St. Martin as his executive director. St. Martin, a Catholic, has extensive experience in campaigns and grassroots organizing. The FFC program for November 2 was a more robust effort than anything in the heyday of the Christian Coalition,” St. Martin told me.

These 4.5 million contacts included educational mail, get out the vote phone calls from Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee, e-mails, “door knocks,” and grassroots phone banks. The Gov. Palin calls on behalf of FFC caught the eye of leftwing watchdogs like rightwingwatch.com as well as some mainstream media.

FFC's efforts in Virginia were extraordinarily successful. Evangelicals made up 34 percent of the Virginia vote. 83 percent of that vote went to McDonnell, 48.6 percent of all his votes. In New Jersey 27 percent of voters said they voted for the candidate who most shared their values. Those voters went for Christie by a 2 to 1 margin and comprised 1/3 of his vote. These are the same social and religious conservative voters that John McCain failed to rally in 2008 -- because his campaign didn’t even try.

But the distinctive mark of FFC is not its confidence in the continued political power of the social conservative message, but its sophisticated use of technology. Reed has created a proprietary piece of software called VoterTrack that allows FFC members to enter their zip codes and receive all the names and phone numbers of social conservative voters in the area. As a result, FFC chapters are being organized and are popping up on Facebook and other social networking sites.

As Jack St. Martin said to me, “We can be successful when we get serious about catching up with the political left by marrying technology to grassroots politics.” He admits that even FFC has a long way to go to catch up to what the Obama campaign put together in 2008, but they made up “a lot of ground in a short period of time.”


Some observers of Reed’s new Faith & Freedom Coalition are skeptical that he can replicate the historic success of the Christian Coalition. Some of his critics, however, have not noticed that FFC is not an updated version of the Christian Coalition. The fact that FFC has a Catholic executive director -- and a Catholic convert to boot -- is indicative of Reed’s intention to reach well beyond the Evangelical community.

Someone with Reed’s track record -- not just as head of the Christian Coalition but as Chairman of the Georgia GOP -- should not be underestimated. As CBN’s David Brody puts it, “Something tells me that Ralph Reed and his group are poised to be major players. The key is always mobilization. Conservative Christians are numerous, but if they are non-existent at the ballot box then it doesn't mean anything.”

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Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com and the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster).

Readers have left 5 comments.

   Quote(1) Time to organize
November 06th, 2009 | 7:01am

We cannot depend on the GOP political bosses to do the right thing, and put forth candidates and platforms which truly reflect the values and ideals of true conservative. We have been betrayed again and again. It is long past due for true conservative to organize at the local and grass roots level to promote their own candidates and push critical issues.

I hope these conservative organizations are successful and force the GOP to start caring about the average citizen and their values and stop selling us out to Wall St.

I would be inclined to go with a new 3rd party, unfortunately, the "Incumbent Party" has stacked the deck and made it virtually impossible to seriously run as a third party. Thus we are put into a defacto embrace of the GOP. If that is the case, then we must force the political bosses to start thinking about us instead of "Kenny Boy" Lay and other other corrupt fat cats.

 Written by Austin

   Quote(2) V for Values
November 06th, 2009 | 7:44am

Deal,

You do an excellent and thought provoking job defining the agenda that Catholics and conservatives ought to engage in the political arena and this article is no exception. However, on this topic there are points of disagreement.

While there's much to commend the Christian Coalition/Moral Majority wing of the GOP, I can't help but think that the real momentum among conservatives rests with those who endorse limited government and reducing foreign entanglements. Reed and Jerry Falwell capitalized on the Reagan presidency and arguably created the Republican revolution in 1994. But hasn't that ship sailed despite Reed's effort to give his coalition a more Catholic identity? It seems that Americans, particularly younger ones, are less interested in a movement which isolates moral issues, and more inclined to embrace a more comprehensive vision encompassing sound economics and restrained foreign policy along with traditional values.

 Written by RK

   Quote(3) Untitled
November 06th, 2009 | 8:03am

Social issues did not play in the race in NJ.

People were just sick of Corzine.

Christie presented himself as a moderate NJ-style Republican. If Sarah Palin had come to campaign for him in NJ, Christie would have lost.

 Written by Ann

   Quote(4) A Comprehensive Vision
November 06th, 2009 | 9:02am

RK, I think you are right about a "comprehensive vision," but I think that always has been the case among religious conservatives. The specific moral issues you cite arise out of such a vision, as I am sure you are aware. The problem of any political organization becomes how long do you make the list of issues you will address, and how specifically. If I were to start such a group, I would figure out how to include what Catholics call "social justice," but ground that in respect for life rather than the preferential option for the poor. I would also try to show how what should be done for the poor, i.e.. the preferential option, grows out of the foundational principle of respect for life, not vice-versa, which has become the case among some liberal Catholic groups.

 Written by Deal Hudson

   Quote(5) a comprehensive catholic vision starts with God
November 06th, 2009 | 9:31am

The fundamental reason Catholics in the prolife movement and the social justice movements live in separate spheres of public life is that both have made strategic decisons not to ground their rhetoric and agenda in the religious duty to worship God. They both speak "as if God does not exist". A lot of this comes from a false intellectual pride in the superiority of catholic intellectual natural law arguments over the "God talk" of evangelicals.This desire to be public intellectuals (grounded in faith but not overtly men of God)has weakened both left and right leaning Catholic political thinkers. A zygote waving a rights bearer sign and the notion that touching the cloak of a poor person is a portal to the life of sanctifying grace are two sides of the same counterfeit coin. We can not introduce the language of gift and duty which binds the nation in our public life without a robust assertion that we live grateful to God and under an obligation to follow His will. If Newt Gingrich can see that I would hope Mr Deal would also ground his many excellent observations and experiences in a more openly theistic sensibility of our common life as nation.

 Written by DrPence

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[GonzoII]

We'll see how it plays out, Deal.

[eeevil conservative]

Ralph doesn’t really have that great of a reputation here in GA.....just sayin....

[stephenjohnbanker]

It is unlikely to do any harm, and may do a lot of good.

[GonzoII]

It looks like he did his homework though.

[eeevil conservative]

Good point Gonzo...

Hey—

I got to tell you...I have seen so much infighting amongst grass roots groups it is sad...

but I just try to stay out of the drama and support any event or action ANY of them have that I think is effective...

At least Ralph is on our side....I think he will be very effective in good ways....but he will be more successful outside of Georgia than within...he will still have some success in Georgia, even....

[ExTexasRedhead]

Wonder if anyone thought of organizing retired FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and law enforcement officers all over the country to investigate and expose corruption by the elected politicians at every level of government. These elites, all over this nation, arrogantly assume they’re above the law and that We The People can do nothing to get them out of office. Glenn Beck is the only one out there trying to clean up our sewer.

[dynachrome]

Glenn Beck is doing the Lord’s work.

[1Swashbuckler]

He was on Fox this week taking credit for the wins. I don’t remember hearing anything about his activism before the elections, only afterwards when credit could be demanded.

Not a peep about any of the grassroots teaparty groups, etc.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Yes, Glenn Beck is doing the Lord’s work, however, he’s doing it alone which is disgraceful in a nation of millions.

[GonzoII]

"I have seen so much infighting amongst grass roots groups it is sad"

That's got to stop, we know who the enemy is!!