In an ‘economy’ year, Republicans run on ‘abortion’

Barb Davis White:

With the national economy in the tank and a seemingly never-ending war in Iraq, Republicans are looking to change the subject. But is abortion a winning issue in 2008? Some Minnesota Republicans seem to think so.

In national public opinion polls, abortion hasn’t registered with voters as a top priority at all this year. It reached 4 percent once this year, and more than 70 percent have said the presidential candidates’ positions on the issue aren’t a deal-breaker at the voting booth. The most recent SurveyUSA poll, which had McCain ahead by one point, found the Minnesota breakdown didn’t follow typical party lines. Only 45 percent of Minnesotans identified as “pro-life,” while 54 percent said they were “pro-choice.”

In late September, the Republican Party of Minnesota sent out its absentee ballot applications wrapped in an anti-abortion tract.

“Please complete the attached Absentee Ballot Application. And when you vote, please vote Pro-Life,” it read. “The next President will likely have the opportunity to appoint as many as three Supreme Court Justices. Those of us who vote Pro-Life know the importance of supporting candidates pledging to appoint Justices to the bench who will protect life. Vote Pro-Life because the unborn are depending on you.”

The tract could be a ploy to get anti-abortion votes, but even federal candidates are putting abortion forward as the most important campaign issue.

In Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, which encompasses the northeast quarter of the state, the Republican candidate, Mike Cummins, is running an anti-abortion campaign. At a recent meeting of Republican party activists in Hubbard County in north-central Minnesota, party officials and candidates hammered that point home. Steve Booth, who ran for state Senate in 2006, introduced Cummins and said that same-sex marriage and abortion are vital to the party.

“It’s the number one and two criteria in making life’s decisions,” he said. Booth said he wants candidates who oppose gun control and who will work to abolish abortion in Minnesota, according to the Park Rapids Enterprise.

“The Democrats don’t want us to focus on the sanctity of human life and marriage,” he said. “They know their position is indefensible.”

Adding that the “devil” will attempt to persecute Republicans and others on high moral ground, he said. “We need to force Democrats to justify killing unborn babies. … That’s our platform; that’s why we’re Republican.”

Cummins, the Republican who is running against Rep. James Oberstar in the 8th District, echoed those sentiments. He said that politicians’ stance on abortion is the “number one question.”

“I’m 100 percent pro-life. We need to continue to hammer on morality,” he said. “Nothing is as important as life.”

In the 5th Congressional District, the most liberal in the state, Republican Barb Davis White is trying to unseat Rep. Keith Ellison. Her campaign sent out a press release in late September attacking Ellison’s position on abortion.

“The killing of thousands of innocent baby’s everyday must stop! As a Patriot I believe that the first right according to the Constitution of the United States is that of LIFE,” wrote Davis White. “My opponent Keith Ellison does not and votes for the notion that the killing of babies should not be discussed by script from a physician to a mother as to what was going to happen to her and her baby.”