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Christian Coalition

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Christian Coalition of America

Founder and former President: Rev. Pat Robertson
President: Dr. Joel C. Hunter was announced as President in October 2006 to replace Roberta Combs
Founded: 1989
Membership: Claimed nearly 2 million members at the height of its influence, but other data suggested 300,000-400,000 members.
Directors or Trustees as of 2004: Dr. Billy McCormack; Drew McKissick; Roberta Combs, Chair
Finances: In 1999, the Christian Coalition was stripped of its 501(c)(3) non-profit status for violating various IRS rules that govern non-profits. Contributions to the group have dropped from a record of $26.5 million in 1996 to their 2004 revenue, which was $1,321,774. The CC is now a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization supported through member dues.
State chapters: As many as 30 chapters were listed on their website, though those lists have since been removed. Several state chapters have dropped their affiliation in 2006.
Publications: The coalition creates and distributes voter guides during primaries and elections in every state. They also have action alerts and newsletters via e-mail on state and federal legislation.
Affiliated Groups: Pat Robertson also created the 700 Club, Christian Broadcasting Network, American Center for Law and Justice, and Regent University, which awards graduate and law degrees and offers a bachelor degree completion program. Two CC projects that are no longer associated with the group are the Samaritan Project and the Catholic Alliance. The Christian Coalition launched the Catholic Alliance in an attempt to boost its membership among pro-family, anti-choice Catholics. The Samaritan Project was the Christian Coalition's vehicle for outreach to African Americans.

Read the latest news on the Christian Coalition on the group's Right Wing Watch index page

Principal Issues

The Christian Coalition (CC) has two central goals: to control the agenda of the Republican party by working from the grassroots up; and to train and elect pro-family, Christian candidates to public office. The group has had considerable success in both areas, and their impact in state and national elections can be detected through their work during primaries and ability to mobilize Christian conservative voters. The CC describes itself as "the largest and most active conservative grassroots political organization in America."

Activities

  • In recent years, the Coalition has fallen on hard times. IRS records show that the Christian Coalition's red ink climbing. Its debts exceeded its assets by $983,000 in 2001, $1.3 million in 2002, $2 million in 2003 and $2.28 million at the end of 2004. Some of the most active and influential chapters, such as the Christian Coalition of Iowa, have cut ties with the national organization. [source]
  • In 2000, the Christian Coalition launched what they claim was their biggest election year campaign ever, distributing 70 million voter guides to their members and conservative churches in every state. Robertson is given credit for throwing his support behind Bush very early in his candidacy, and helping Bush gain the support of the Religious Right. The coalition is credited with assisting Bush with winning the South Carolina presidential primary through their strong get-out-the-vote activities. During the 2000 election Pat Robertson taped a telephone message criticizing presidential candidate John McCain on the eve of the February Michigan primary.
  • The coalition is a major lobbying force on Capitol Hill and has many strong ties to Congress.
  • The Christian Coalition's annual conference, "Road to Victory," speakers list reads like a veritable who's who in right-wing and mainstream conservative circles. In 2000 their list of speakers included: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Rev. Jerry Falwell, RNC chairman Jim Nicholson, and then-presidential candidate George W. Bush via videotape.
  • The Christian Coalition's principal "contribution" to electoral politics is the distribution of election-eve voters guides. Nominally nonpartisan but plainly directive, the guides outline the candidates' positions on a variety of issues. The Coalition's descriptions, however, are often manipulative. They describe a supporter of the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, as a proponent of "tax-funded obscene art." Many candidates refuse to respond to the questionnaires for fear of distortion, however the group filled it in for them by reviewing voting records. These "non-partisan" voter guides eventually led to the group losing its tax-exempt status. The Federal Election Commission charged that the Christian Coalition endorsed Republican candidates with its voter guides in the 1990 and 1992 elections, and illegally coordinated its activities with the Bush reelection campaign.

History

  • The Christian Coalition's initial approach to elections, popularly known as "stealth" tactics, has three essential parts: targeting low-profile elections that normally attract few voters, focusing get-out-the-vote efforts on certain conservative churches, and instructing the candidates to hide their views from the public by avoiding public appearances and refusing to fill out questionnaires. In 1992, Ralph Reed told a Coalition gathering, "The first strategy, and in many ways the most important strategy, for evangelicals is secrecy."
  • The Coalition's strategy first attracted national attention in 1990, when a coalition of right-wing groups led by the Christian Coalition helped candidates in San Diego win 60 of 90 races for a variety of offices, such as school and hospital boards.
  • Reed boasted of their early success with a few choice comments that helped make him famous. "[S]tealth was a big factor in San Diego's success," he said. "But that's just good strategy. It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night." Continuing, "I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night." Later, under intense pressure, Reed renounced his covert tactics and now denies the group ever used them.

Recent problems

  • The Christian Coalition has undergone several changes in leadership since the departure of Executive Director Ralph Reed [see PFAW's report on Reed] in September of 1997. It has also suffered a severe decline in donations, from $26.5 million in 1996 to an estimated $3 million in 2000. As a result of this steep loss in revenue, the group has reorganized by cutting staff and dropping its minority outreach program, the Samaritan Project. Another recent stumbling block for the Christian Coalition has been a series of racial discrimination lawsuits by their employees.
  • In February of 2001, ten black employees filed a racial discrimination suit against the organization. Alleging that they were treated with Jim Crow-style segregationist rules, the black employees also stated in their lawsuit that the Christian Coalition's director was "uncomfortable" when the black employees joined company-sponsored prayer sessions and eventually stopped inviting them. In March, two more black employees and a white employee filed discrimination charges against the organization. The white employee claims he was fired by the evangelical organization when he refused the director's request to spy on the black employees who had filed the lawsuit.
  • In December 2001, Pat Robertson stepped down as the President of the Christian Coalition. Robertson said it was because he wanted to spend more time on his ministry work.
  • In March 2004 a law firm that has worked for the CC since 1989 asked a judge to garnish the assets of the group for $75,000 in unpaid legal fees.

Quotes from Pat Robertson

On women's equality: "I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."— The 700 Club, 01/08/92

Referring to the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Pat Robertson had this to say; "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."— The 700 Club, 08/22/05

" [The people in the United States] have allowed rampant secularism and occult, etc. to be broadcast on television. We have permitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 million unborn babies to be slaughtered in our society. We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said we're going to legislate you out of the schools. We're going to take your commandments from off the courthouse steps in various states. We're not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We're not going to let the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And, then we say "why does this happen?" Well, why its happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us. And once that protection is gone, we all are vulnerable because we're a free society, and we're vulnerable. We lay naked before these terrorists who have infiltrated our country. There's probably tens of thousands of them in America right now. They've been raising money. They've been preaching their hate and overseas they've been spewing out venom against the United States for years. All over the Arab world, there is venom being poured out into people's ears and minds against America. And, the only thing that's going to sustain us is the power of the Almighty God."— 700 Club, 09/13/01

"The worse thing in the world for somebody who is a person of color, black, African American, whatever term is in vogue these days to hold grudges and say well 100 years ago my ancestors were in slavery, and therefore I hate you. That doesn't fly. And to live in the past is the most numbing experience because what it does is sap your energy for the future. And, what everybody's got to do is to say before God I'm going to ask God to bring forgiveness into my life. And, I am just totally against these leaders who stir up the divisions and the hatred. You've seen it - talking about all these offenses and things that happened. And, they're doing it for publicity. They're doing it to raise money. They're doing it to get a following so they'll be elected to some office, and so forth. That's wrong. To play on the hatred of people for your own personal gain is abhorrent, and there are many people who do that."— 700 Club, 02/06/01

"The concept that one God, "Thou shall have no other gods before me", will somehow upset a Hindu, that's tough luck! America was founded as a Christian nation. Our institutions presuppose the existence of a Supreme Being, a Being after the Bible. And we as Americans believe in the god of the Bible. And the fact that somebody comes with what amounts to an alien religion to these shores doesn't mean that we're going to give up all of our cherished religious beliefs to accommodate a few people who happen to believe in something else. You just can't do that. And that's been the thing that's been pushed over and over again. Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, said as I read the constitution, it's very clear. It says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. It says nothing of about a school district letting book covers be passed out"— 700 Club, 10/05/00

Pat responds to the question "Certain denominations are beginning to accept homosexual behavior in the church. Do you feel that it is for benefit, political gain or social acceptance?" sent in by a 700 Club viewer. His response was, ""I think that we have a pressure in our society right now called political correctness where it is not appropriate any longer to criticize anybody for their religion, their lifestyle, their race, their creed, their color, national origin, disabilities, or anything. You can't criticize anybody for anything. And so, if somebody has a quote lifestyle, that's their thing, and if somebody said, 'I'll make it with a duck', well, you know, who are you to criticize them. Well that isn't what the Bible says. The Bible has standards, and the standard makes it very clear that the acceptance of homosexuality in a society is the last stage after God has given a people up."… "How can a church open their arms and say 'You keep on with the lifestyle.'"— 700 Club, 10/17/00

"In the Old Testament and the New Testament boys and girls didn't make decisions like this, they were betrothed by their parents. We've got a couple here at Regent University whose parents arranged the marriage and they're very, very happy. I honestly think if we went back to that kind of thing you'd have a whole lot less problems — It'll help. I think it would cut down the divorce rate."— 700 Club, 0214/00

"We want...as soon as possible to see a majority of the Republican Party in the hands of pro-family Christians by 1996."— Denver Post, 10/26/92

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."— Pat Robertson direct mail, Summer 1992

"I believe that during the next couple of years there will be a fierce struggle between the militant leftists, secular humanists, and atheists who have dominated the power centers of American culture for the past 50 years and the Evangelical Christians, pro-family Roman Catholics, and their conservative allies. The radical left will lose its hold, and by the end of this decade control of the major institutions of society will be firmly in the hands of those who share a pro-family, religious, traditional value perspective."— Pat Robertson's Perspective, July-August/1991

Updated: September 2006
 

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PFAW
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Unearthing Right-Wing Treasure

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on August 12, 2011 - 1:48pm

People For the American Way is preparing to move its headquarters to another location in Washington, D.C. , after more than 20 years in the same space. That has meant a monumental effort to sort through decades of accumulated paper and figure out what to do with video recordings in more formats than you could imagine – and endless save-or-toss decisions.

Fortunately, earlier this year PFAW’s huge library of primary source materials on the Religious Right political movement was transferred to the University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements, where it will be more accessible to scholars and journalists. But even still, preparing for the move has meant weeks of memory-triggering moments while plowing through file cabinets and finding hidden stashes of materials.
 
Among the random bits of right-wingalia I stumbled across:
  • a letter from Jerry Falwell urging his supporters to call Congress and oppose sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa in order to prevent a Communist takeover (an  accompanying 16-page “Fundamentalist Journal – Special Report” included a Falwell interview with the foreign minister saying that the West “has been doing the work of Moscow.”);
  • a 1990 Christian Coalition leadership manual that includes the assertion that the relationship between employers and employees should be based on Bible verses telling slaves to obey their masters, no matter how harsh;
  • a 1982 PFAW report on the Religious Right’s efforts to use the Texas textbook process to foist their ideology on American students nationwide (sound familiar?);
  • books and campaign plans for the takeover of America by once-obscure Christian Reconstructionist figures who are now in the news thanks to the frightening ascension of followers like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann;
  • candidate questionnaires from Religious Right groups in the 1980s demanding to know whether politicians would support across-the-board tax cuts, a reminder that the Religious Right has been pushing Tea Party economics for a long time;
  • a lavishly produced press kit for the 2006 opening of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, where a disturbing number of Americans have flocked to be mis-educated about biology, geology, and history; and
  • in honor of Rick Perry’s recent prayer rally in Houston, a 1985 campaign flyer from the "Straight Slate" of candidates for Mayor and City Council, warning that Houston “has become the Southwest capital for homosexuality and pornography” and insisting that “We must not allow Houston to become another San Francisco!” (Current Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who was sworn in last year, is a lesbian who parents three children with her partner.)
It’s also been a reminder that the Religious Right has been declared dead more often than Freddy Krueger, usually by someone who is focusing on one organization in disarray or one election defeat for conservatives. But as our current political climate makes clear, the Religious Right and its political and economic allies have built a massive infrastructure of national and state-level think tanks, legal and political organizations, radio and TV networks, universities and law schools, and elected officials they have helped put into office at all levels of government.  They aren’t going anywhere. And neither are we – well, just a few blocks across town.
PFAW Foundation
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Sharron Angle Plays Matchmaker for Tea Party, Religious Right

Submitted by Anonymous on July 14, 2010 - 3:37pm

 

As we’ve noted before, religious right leaders are desperate to jump aboard the Tea Party bandwagon. Now Tea Party backed candidate Sharron Angle is returning the favor, networking with Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed and attributing her political success to God.

The Tea Party movement is better-known for its alignment with libertarian, anti-Washington sentiment than for its ties to social conservatism. But in an effort to build as broad a coalition as possible in her effort to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle is checking all the boxes.

Over the weekend, Angle participated in an interview with Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist, founder of the Christian Coalition, and the man once deemed the "right hand of god" by Time Magazine. And in the course of answering a question about her rise from relative obscurity, the Nevada Republican made a rather bold declaration. Her path to victory, she said, was God's plan.

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Christian Coalition Wants "Twilight" Books Banned

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on July 7, 2010 - 10:07am

Imagine that you were the president of a Religious Right organization that was, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, among the most influential political operations in the nation.  Since then, the organization has drastically constricted and lost nearly all of its relevance.  As such, as president of said organization, you are constantly on the lookout for ways to make an impact and announce to the world that you are, in fact, still a group to be reckoned with. 

How would you go about trying to do that?

Well, if you are Roberta Combs of the Christian Coalition, you do so by announcing that you want to see the Twilight series banned because the books are luring the nation's teens into the occult: 

Meanwhile, conservative Christian organizations that sought to ban the Harry Potter books because they're about wizards and witches are divided about criticizing Twilight.

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, which called for a ban on the Potter series, says she's considering a similar campaign against Twilight because even though it's pro-abstinence, it's also pro-vampires.

She says vampires are definitely not good role models, and she blames Hollywood.

"We can let our voices be heard, and anytime you do that you have an effect one way or another," Combs says. "These Twilight books are very disturbing books for family values. Teen marriage is not the standard, but the part that is more troubling is the vampire. It's just not normal for young people to idolize a vampire."

If Combs' mission is to ensure that the Christian Coalition remains a laughingstock ... well, mission accomplished.

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Christian Coalition: Bart Stupak Is a Traitor Just Like Benedict Arnold and Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 26, 2010 - 10:39am

It seems that the passage of health care reform legislation has awakened the fury in the Christian Coalition. 

Earlier this week, they compared its passage to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and now they are back labeling Rep. Bart Stupak a traitor on par with Benedict Arnold, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg ... and Jane Fonda:

Nearly all Americans, even students in America's politically-correct schools, know who America's number one traitor is, Benedict Arnold, who escaped to Great Britain avoiding arrest and the noose during the Revolutionary War. Most senior citizens, and other knowledgeable Americans, know who Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are, American communist traitors executed for treason at the height of the Cold War.

And many Americans, and virtually all of us Vietnam War veterans, know the treachery of actress Jane Fonda who actually was in our communist enemy's capital, Hanoi, Vietnam, at the height of the Vietnam War pretending to shoot down American pilots with a North Vietnamese artillery piece, a photo which gave huge aid and comfort to our communist enemies all over the world.

Which brings us to America's newest traitor in this infamous list of traitors: Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak from the First Congressional District of Michigan. Last Sunday, Bart Stupak single-handedly provided the enemies of American culture his vote and less than a handful of votes to install socialism (ObamaCare) for the first time in America.

Indeed, on the very morning of the vote for ObamaCare -- on the Lord's Day of all days -- Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi did not have the votes according to one of the most non-partisan voter-counters on Capitol Hill. That is, until Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak made his treacherous pact with Obama and Pelosi.

Let's get this straight: Arnold aided our British enemies, the Rosenbergs aided our Soviet enemies, Fonda supposedly aided our Vietnamese enemies ... and Stupak aided our enemies Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama? 

PFAW
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March 21, 2010: A Day That Will Live In Infamy

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on March 24, 2010 - 10:57am

Nobody really pays much attention to the Christian Coalition any more because, frankly, they don't seem to do very much ... which is too bad because it would be really great for my blogging if they'd send out more absurdly over-the-top statements like this one:

In addition to the three previous days of infamy in American history, Sunday, March 21, 2010 will go down in history as a very infamous day full of betrayal and deceit. Japan conducted a sneak attack on America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States Supreme Court in its Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973 legalized abortion resulting in the brutal deaths of 50 million unborn children up to the present time. Islamic terrorists attacked America in September 11, 2001 resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 innocent souls.

This past Sunday, a day which will live in infamy -- the Lord's Day of all days -- the Democrat Party attacked the foundations of the United States of America and established the beginning of European-style socialism (and worse) in America by its vote in the United States House of Representatives ... The only good thing about Sunday's day of infamy is that unlike the attacks on America on December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001, what the Democrat Party did to attack America -- by defying the will of the great majority of the American people and imposing ObamaCare upon them -- can be, and will be, undone by the American people. They will begin to do so on Election Day, November 2nd.

You know, it really is amazing that comparing Democrats to terrorists and traitors and Nazis has become so common among the Right that nobody even bats an eye any more. 

PFAW
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It's Pat! -- Vintage Pat Robertson, In His Own Words

Submitted by Anonymous on January 6, 2010 - 1:09pm

People For the American Way was founded in the early 80s to counteract the nascent Religious Right -- Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in particular. Through the 80s and 90s, PFAW staff recorded virtually every episode of the 700 Club.

In the lead up to Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign, we released a compilation of clips highlighting his controversial and outlandish views on the issues of the day. The compilation came to be known as the "Pat Robertson Film Festival." We recently posted all seven segments on YouTube.

Robertson on the Family and Women's Rights:

Robertson on Armageddon and Hurricane Gloria:

Robertson on Running for President:

Robertson on PFAW, His Opponents, and Freedom of Speech:

Robertson on Public Education:

Robertson on the Courts and Constitution:

Robertson on Social Security and Banking System:

PFAW
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Christian Coalition: The New Environmentalists

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on October 23, 2009 - 11:52am

A few months ago we noted that the Christian Coalition, after firing its incoming president, Joel Hunter, for trying to get the group to expand its agenda to include things like climate change, had suddenly changed its tune and begun working with the National Wildlife Federation.

It seems as if this change is the real deal, because the two groups recently ran a joint ad in Politico calling on Senators to "work together to move forward with a clean energy plan for America":

America's economic growth, national security and the health of our environment are all intertwined with our country's energy policies - and we need a better plan.

We can better ensure our national security, strengthen our economy and protect our environment at the same time by developing American energy resources and investing in clean, renewable energy technologies that create American jobs.

In other words we need a comprehensive, all-American approach to our energy needs. A solution that allows for the development of American resources to lower our gas prices, but also recognizes we must work towards a much more diversified energy future.

* We believe that America is addicted to foreign oil. America currently sends over 700 billion dollars every year to foreign countries - in many cases, making countries that hate us very rich.

* We believe that an over-reliance on foreign sources of energy is harmful to our country's national security and puts our economy at risk.

* We need a comprehensive approach to deal with our country's energy needs and provide stable sources of energy to run our economy and provide for our families

* We need solutions that include proven American technology and resources, as well as the development of new "renewable" energy technologies. By building on current technologies, such as nuclear and natural gas, and developing new technologies, America can provide for its future energy independence and build its economy.

* We call for the launch of an American energy independence program focused on developing American energy resources, providing tax credits to spur development of new technology and alternative energy production, and offering incentives for energy efficiencies.

As conservatives, we stand up for our country's national security and the health of our economy. And, as Christians, we recognize the Biblical mandate to care for God's creation and protect our children's future.

You can see a PDF of the ad here.

PFAW
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How Clinton's Impeachment Led to The Collapse of the Christian Coalition

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on September 15, 2009 - 10:33am

Joel Vaughan was a high-ranking staffer during the heyday of the Christian Coalition and its inexorable decline into obscurity. He eventually left the organization and now serves as special assistant to Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, and has written a book called "The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition: The Inside Story." 

Recently, he appeared on a Christian radio program called "The Georgene Rice Show" to promote the book and provided a fascinating insider's view on the group's rise and decline following the departure of Ralph Reed.

But, Vaughan says, what ultimate doomed the Christian Coalition was Pat Roberston's decision to abandon the impeachment effort against President Clinton: 

Georgene: We know that the Christian Coalition was a bi-word to the media that tended toward the left, and that anything that was accomplished there was lauded as not positive. But let’s talk about the fall of the Christian Coalition and what ultimately left the organization in utter obscurity. Talk about the high point and then the slide downward.

Vaughan: There were three main things: finances, mission and staffing. The high point was after the 1994 elections, all through 1995 and leading up to 1996. But when Dole lost to Clinton in 1996, we immediately began experiencing a cash crunch. When it didn’t pick back up in 1997, we started to accumulate debt. Making matters worse, we were being hounded by the IRS and the Federal Elections Commission. And we were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on those defenses. In April, Reed announced he was leaving to go into consulting full time, and his successors, Hodel and Randy Tate, weren’t announced until June. And during that period, money went into the tank, and the debt increased. Therefore, the debt was unmanageable by the first two or three months of the new administration. After about a year, they had kind of gotten things back on an even keel. Hodel and Robertson both put in their own money to keep the Coalition afloat and to help meet payroll. Direct mail was getting back up. Things were on a good line until the Clinton impeachment in 1998 over his then alleged affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

All the conservative groups were fighting hard to get Clinton impeached, and he was impeached, and his trial was set for January, 1999. Then Clinton made his State of the Union address right before the trial. He did such a good job. It was a true Clintonian performance. There is no one better before a camera. He doesn’t even need the teleprompters that our current President needs. He did such a good job that Robertson went on the 700 Club the next day and said Clinton did such a great job, and this impeachment thing is over, and as far as he was concerned, we should get on with something else. Well the Christian Coalition supporters across America didn’t agree. They thought we should keep fighting and keep working and, even if we were going to lose the impeachment trial, we should still hold Clinton’s feet to the fire and stay based on the matter of fighting for principal……Robertson thought it was more expedient to get on with a battle we could win……Finally, Hodel told Robertson that we needed to apologize to the grass roots. Pat didn’t feel like that was something he wanted to do…So Hodel decided to leave and return to Colorado where he could return to his private pursuits.

Robertson made a decision to bring in one of the state directors [Roberta Combs] from South Carolina to take over the organization. She did a good job running the Coalition in South Carolina, but bless her heart, she wasn’t ready to run a national organization. She was in over her head from day one. The staff didn’t want her there. She didn’t want any of the staff there. She questioned their loyalty. People started leaving in mass. She started firing a few people. Before you know it, the thing was just gone. By the end of the year, it was only a vapor.

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Bob McDonnell: Ralph Reed's Guerrilla Warrior

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on September 1, 2009 - 3:50pm

With all the attention being paid to Bob McDonnell and the master's thesis he wrote while attending Pat Robertson's Regent University, it's no surprise that he is working hard to distance himself from his own right-wing views by stating that the thesis was written twenty years ago and that he doesn't necessarily hold such views today. 

But it should be remembered that it was because of those views that he even won elected office in the first place, thanks to the backing of Robertson's Christian Coalition.

Shortly after he graduated from Regent, McDonnell ran for a seat in Virginia's House of Delegates and it was through its success at getting candiates like McDonnell elected that Robertson's nascent Christian Coalition grew into a political powerhouse.

Following McDonnell's election in 1991, CC Executive Director Ralph Reed forcefully declared: "Bob McDonnell is going to Richmond because of Christian and pro-family voters. Period. End of story." 

Even more telling is the fact that it was McDonnell's victory that gave rise to Reed's infamous "guerrilla warfare" analogy: 

Robertson Organization Gets Credit for Beach Election Outcome
11 November 1991
The Associated Press

Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, buoyed by a show of political muscle in Virginia's General Assembly elections last week, will welcome Vice President Dan Quayle at its "Road to Victory" conference on Friday.

The conference "will change the direction of American politics," Robertson said in a letter to supporters last month. "We will discuss strategy for turning out over 20 million pro-family voters in 1992."

The coalition, employing grassroots tactics learned in Robertson's unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988, is being given some of the credit for the victories of Republican candidates in Virginia Beach races Nov. 5.

Republicans won seven of nine races in the city, ousting two incumbents and taking two open seats. Although the coalition doesn't endorse candidates or parties, it pushes a "pro-family" agenda that many GOP candidates follow, said Ralph E. Reed Jr., executive director of the organization.

...

According to Reed, the coalition's work was responsible for the victory of Republican Robert F. McDonnell, a Virginia Beach prosecutor and graduate of Robertson's Regent University, over 20-year incumbent Democrat Glenn B. McClanan in the 84th House of Delegates district.

...

Reed agreed that the coalition tilted the playing field. "I want to be invisible," he said. "I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night."

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