The religious right shows political might

7 Apr 2006 // Pennsylvania's religious right is pumping up its political power in ways that are drawing national attention and could lead to short- and long-term blessings for the Republican Party.

It also could set the stage for an '08 color change here, turning Pennsylvania from Democratic "blue" (in the last four presidential elections) to bright Republican "red."

A new organization, Pennsylvania Pastors Network, is hiring 10 political field directors to manage a voter-registration drive starting in August to bring out more members of evangelical churches this fall.

"If we are successful, we will add to the rolls a significant number of conservative voters," says organizer Colin Hanna, "and that is our intention."

Hanna says that up to 40 percent of regular churchgoers aren't registered to vote.

Efforts to change that involve 225 pastors and assistant pastors from "biblically faithful" congregations across the state.

The scope appears unparalleled in the nation.

Joe Conn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State says, "It has potential to have a big impact. We've never seen churches used as an organized political machine."

National polling consistently shows that churchgoers who vote, vote Republican.

Hanna is a former Republican Chester County commissioner who won a legal fight in 2003 to keep a display of the Ten Commandments on a Chester County Courthouse wall.

He says his current effort is "nonpartisan" and does not cross the line between church and state.

Others say different.

The network's March meeting in Valley Forge featured a video message from GOP Sen. Rick Santorum and copies of Santorum's book, "It Takes a Family."

Santorum's Democratic challenger, state treasurer Bob Casey Jr., was not invited. He since asked to speak to the group and was told he can submit a video "as state treasurer" on Santorum's topic, amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

Santorum supports such a ban. Casey does not.

Meanwhile, national progressive groups such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and a just-emerging Washington-based Faith in Public Life Resource Center are involved.

CREW filed a formal complaint with the IRS claiming the network violates its churches' tax-exempt status by running get-out-the-vote training. (Hanna says, "I don't believe that," and calls CREW, "attack dogs for the Democratic Party.")

The Faith in Public Life group organized by religious leaders (including former Pennsylvania Congressman Bob Edgar, now head of the National Council of Churches) wants, says a spokeswoman, to show "evangelicals are not the only voice of organized religion."

Other religious groups worry evangelicals tend to focus on a conservative political agenda to the exclusion of issues such as health care, poverty and the environment.

"It's a real concern for those of us trying to maintain a non-partisan position in the work we do," says the Rev. Sandra Strauss of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.

(Hanna tells me upcoming network meetings deal with the religious controversy surrounding release of the film "The Da Vinci Code," and gambling.)

Electorally? A pumped-up religious right clearly benefits Santorum.

While Casey, like Santorum, opposes abortion rights, a recent Daily News/CN8 Keystone Poll shows both anti-abortion voters and voters moved mostly by social issues widely favor Santorum over Casey.

Pittsburgh political analyst Jon Delano notes Santorum ran President Bush's Pennsylvania re-election campaign and helped mobilize the evangelical vote to win traditionally Democratic western counties (Armstrong, Greene, Westmoreland) for Bush while using the election to develop his own network and base.

"It would not surprise me if he brought out bigger numbers this year than he got for Bush," Delano says.

Bush lost Pennsylvania by just 144,000 votes out of 5.7 million. He won Ohio, which had a marriage amendment on the ballot. Efforts are underway here to get such an amendment on the '08 ballot. If that happens, expect a stronger conservative vote - up and down the ballot.

The impact?

Political scientist Thomas Baldino of Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre calls the developing evangelical effort "political nitroglycerin" that can cause further divisiveness in campaigns and elections.

Hanna says, "It is the intention of the network to continue and build over several years."

Which could mean a new key voting bloc across Pennsylvania.