Elections

The conventional wisdom says that Virginia is a key battleground state in the upcoming election and Jerry Falwell Jr. has been busy doing his small part to see that it goes for McCain in November.

As we noted a few weeks back, Falwell shut down a parking lot owned by Liberty University that attendees to an Obama rally were intending to use, citing IRS regulations, and then, just a few weeks later, held a McCain campaign rally on campus.

But just in case that wasn’t enough, Falwell has announced that Liberty U is launching a campus wide voter registration drive to get every one of its 10,000+ students registered and will be canceling classes on Election Day and shuttling students to the polls:  

Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of socially conservative Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., is launching an ambitious drive to get the school's 10,500 students registered to vote, and he's promising to make buses available to shuttle them to the polls on Election Day.

Falwell, son of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, said he plans to distribute forms at dormitories and in classrooms tomorrow to make sure students register before Virginia's Oct. 6 deadline.

Falwell, whose father founded the school in 1971 and went on to become a leader in efforts to get evangelicals more involved in politics, said he wants in-state and out-of-state students to register in Virginia. The turnout at Liberty could make a crucial difference in this year's election, he said.

"Wouldn't it be something if Liberty's votes were enough to change which presidential candidate won Virginia and maybe even the presidency itself," Falwell said in a statement announcing the initiative.

With Virginia emerging as a crucial state in the presidential race, frantic campaigns are underway at colleges across the state to get first-time voters to register and to persuade those registered in another state to register in Virginia.

…

But Falwell's efforts to register Liberty students, many of whom might be inclined to support GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), may be an unprecedented step by such a high-ranking college official, political observers say.

On Election Day, Liberty also plans to cancel classes. According to the statement, Falwell is planning "an all-day concert" on campus that will morph into an "election party" when the returns come in.

Falwell is not exaggerating when he says his efforts could shape the outcome of the presidential race in Virginia. Two recent statewide elections -- the U.S. Senate race in 2006 and the attorney general's race in 2005 -- were decided by fewer than 10,000 votes.

Yesterday we wrote that Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was preparing to announce a new PAC that, we presumed, would endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin. As it turns out, that FRC is apparently still not quite sure enough about McCain to do so:

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins announced the group's new political action committee that will endorse candidates and raise money.

The PAC will not endorse a presidential candidate, however.

"There are still lingering concerns about some of John McCain’s positions," Perkins said at a press conference. Conservative Christians have voiced concerns in the past over McCain's over embryonic stem cell research and the federal marriage amendment.

Although FRC extended invitations to John McCain, Barack Obama, and Sarah Palin, none of them will appear. Perkins said he believes Palin could have an impact on McCain's policy decisions.

"I’ve had a number of conversations with John McCain, we’re not golfing buddies by any means … she’s not just window dressing, she’s going to be an active partner,"

Perkins said. "While it may not have been a vigorous conversation, John McCain and his campaign were listening." Perkins said the PAC plans to raise about $250,000 and put the money into one of the tighter races.

"We’re not looking to make a huge impact monetarily," he said. "We’re there saying, this is the candidate who lines up with those who are concerned about families."

The PAC endorsed about 80 candidates with just two Democrats on the list: Rep. Heath Shuler and Rep. Mike McIntyre.

Back when the Republican primary was still hot-and-heavy, there was some speculation that the Religious Right was not-so-subtly lining up behind Mitt Romney because when a group of heavyweights teamed up with Focus on the Family Action to analyze the South Carolina primary, every candidate was criticized except Mitt Romney.  

Focus responded to the speculation by telling Marc Ambinder that they were not “endorsing any candidates, either ‘stealthily’ or otherwise” and then Tony Perkins weighed in as well, telling Michael Scherer that not only was he not endorsing anyone, but that he had no plans to do so in the future:

Last Saturday night, after the polls closed in South Carolina, I joined our friends at Focus on the Family Action in a live web cast discussion of the election returns. My comments about each of the presidential candidates were excerpted for home page clips on the Focus Action web site. The interpretation being given to those comments by some is just wrong. I have not endorsed any candidate for the White House and have no plans to do so. During the course of almost a year of speaking about this tense and competitive race, I have talked to thousands of reporters and offered reams of commentary. Despite the urgings of many close friends and allies in the social issue trenches, people who have been at my side for battle after battle, I have not chosen -- and have not plans -- to give an explicit or implied endorsement to any individual.

Well, it looks like that is about to change:

On Friday at 1 PM at the Values Voter Summit, Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins will announce the formation of a Political Action Committee and release candidate endorsements.

What: News Conference to announce formation of FRC Action Political Action Committee and Candidate Endorsements

Who: Tony Perkins, President of FRC Action
David Nammo, Executive Director of FRC Action

When: Friday, September 12, 2008
1 PM ET

Presumably, John McCain and Sarah Palin will be among those getting the new FRC PAC’s endorsement.

It’s amazing how, as the election gets closer, the Right seems to continually find ways to renege on their earlier pledges and support John McCain.

It is no secret that, heading into the 2008 election, the Republican Party’s right-wing base is anything but energized about having to vote for John McCain.  Facing dim prospects, the McCain campaign is doing what it can to court the Right, as is the RNC, while Religious Right power-brokers are working overtime to get pastors involved all over the country. 

For instance, a few weeks ago, Kenyn Cureton, the Family Research Council’s Vice President for Church Ministries, appeared on Janet Folger’s “Faith2Action” radio program where he revealed their plans to encourage pastors to speak out leading up to the election and, in his words, “cross the line”:

 “The pastors need to speak clearly about it. I’ll tell you we are working with the Alliance Defense Fund on a series of sermons this fall for pastors to preach, so that they educate their people on the issues.

“We’re gonna be talking about the value of life, the value of family and the value of freedom, basically talking about abortion and stem-cell research,” he continued, “and then also about the gay agenda and then finally about our Christian heritage and how it’s being stripped from every corner of society. And then finally we’re gonna be doing a candidate comparison message that is going to ask pastors to cross the line.”

At the time, it wasn’t know exactly what FRC and the Alliance Defense Fund were planning, but today the ADF revealed that it intends to find preachers who are willing to defy the current tax laws and openly challenge the IRS:

A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics.

Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.

The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

As Americans United’s Rob Boston put it, “If a few misguided churches want to become cogs in a political machine, they can simply give up their tax exemptions and play by the same tax and election-law rules as everybody else.”   But the Right refuses to do that and has decided, instead, to challenge the constitutionality of the law in the court.

And given the current make-up of the Supreme Court and the likelihood that the next president will be placing one or more justices on the Court, it is quite possible that the outcome of this right-wing legal challenge, should it make it to the high court, will rest heavily on the outcome of the very election they are seeking to influence.