ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Shortly after a priest's opening prayer and a screening of a short film on John McCain's faith, Sen. Sam Brownback stepped to the microphone and didn't waste words.
"Just to get to the whole meat of the matter, the Catholic vote is a swing vote," the Kansas lawmaker and Catholic convert said at a Catholic reception during this week's Republican National Convention.
"It is a critical vote in swing states," he said. "It is a vote we can win — but only if we work to win it."
Catholics are shaping up to be the battleground religious vote of 2008. Recent polls show McCain and Democrat Barack Obama neck and neck among white Catholics — a better indicator of swing voters because Hispanic Catholics lean Democratic. With an estimated 47 million U.S. Catholic voters, the stakes are huge.
Obama and McCain want to energize Catholics who line up with them ideologically. But the real prize is the increasing number of Catholics who don't identify with either major party.
The largest bloc of Catholic voters — 41 percent — identify as independents, up 11 percentage points from 2004, according to February polling for Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Neither presidential candidate lines up precisely with the breadth of Catholic teaching, but Catholic organizers for McCain and Obama are making the case that their man comes closest.
Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, co-chair of the National Catholics for McCain Committee, said in an interview that the McCain campaign is staging a "very aggressive" Catholic get-out-the-vote effort, dispatching surrogates to mobilize lay people at parishes and speak before anti-abortion groups and Catholic fraternal organizations.
In St. Paul, the independent Catholic Working Group, which works for Republican causes, invited Catholic McCain backers to three events: a Mass and reception at the Cathedral of St. Paul, a panel discussion on judicial philosophy and the forum at a hotel where Brownback and other Republican figures lauded McCain and lashed out at Obama.
One Catholic McCain supporter, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, spoke almost exclusively about abortion at various events this week, hammering home the claim that Obama would be "the abortion president."
Brownback highlighted McCain's stances against abortion rights and gay marriage. He lauded McCain running mate Sarah Palin, whose star turn this week has energized conservative Catholics and evangelicals alike.
But Brownback also challenged the notion that Democrats are more in line with Catholic social justice concerns, suggesting that McCain's opposition to torture and support of comprehensive immigration reform provide an opening.
"I am not conceding the social ground," said Brownback, a former presidential candidate. "We are a pro-life and whole-life party."
Getting out the Catholic vote was clearly on Brownback's mind.
"It is no gimme vote," he said. "This is one you've got to dig in and work on a parish-by-parish basis, get the list, identify people that'll get out and vote and then get them out to vote." Continue >>
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wr, how about 47 million votes. :)
Can someone tell me what the Catholics are looking for that the non-Catholics are not?
This article suggests the Catholic vote is critical but doesn't explain why.
blue, as if democrats catering to the evangelical base is not the same thing, it's called politics!
stan, please quit grandstanding, there are not 10 million children who die in America due to poverty ever year. Granted one child dying as a result of poverty is one too many. And please tell the child who is murdered as a result of a partial birth abortion that it could be worse. And I can almost guarantee you this, if there is a Bible believing, teaching, and living Church in a community that discovers there are children who are not having their basic needs met they will do all they can to immediately remedy that problem. In fact in the Southern Baptist Convention we have funds set aside that are available to any SBC church for that very purpose and I know we are not the only denomination that does that as I know the Catholic Church is very active in ministering to these needs as are other denominations and churches.
I really hate it when politicians seize on trying to swing 'our votes'.. The Catholic vote, the woman vote, the young student vote... all of whom really tend to vote democratic
It's all so very sad. Whoever becomes our next President is rather a MOOT POINT. The President has been a puppet for many years. He has no real power, and hasn't for some time. I believe the term is FIGUREHEAD. The New World Order, The Bilderbergers, The U.N., and other agencies control this country. I have a horrible feeling in the PIT OF MY STOMACH regarding the election. I believe that shortly before, or shortly after the election, there will be some really HORRIBLE things occuring. May God have MERCY on tis country.
The tens of millions of children who die every year from poverty deserve life also. They die in a much more merciless fashion than life that is cut off during an abortion; which is done by thousands of Republican woman also(not just a Democratic sin). But that life in other countries would cost the Republican leaders something so that is less of a concern. They did nothing to reduce the number of abortions even when they controlled the Congress, White House and the Supreme Court. It's a total political ploy by the leaders of the party. Does anyone think Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity care about anyone's baby or potential baby?
I don't know that you can just focus on Catholics. I think the whole Christian family in all our denominations who have put Jesus first and are pro-life should support the only pro-life President and Vice President we have available: McCain/Palin. We have been blessed. This is the most pro-life ticket in Republican history.
And life is a lot better when you're alive.