McCain courts conservatives in Iowa

updated 9:07 a.m. ET April 13, 2006

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican Sen. John McCain is courting conservative activists, crucial to any White House hopes, in an early test of his political strength.

He has his work cut out for him in Iowa.

“I don’t want to say it’s an insurmountable hurdle, but it’s a big, big hill to climb,” said Steve Scheffler, who heads the Iowa Christian Alliance, formerly the Christian Coalition. “There’s no support for McCain in this constituency, and I don’t see how you can make a scenario where you can bypass us.”

The Arizona senator, who skipped Iowa’s leadoff caucuses in his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination in 2000, planned a hectic itinerary through the state Thursday, raising money for local politicians and wooing conservatives in private meetings.

Cast as the Republican front-runner in a nascent presidential campaign, McCain has reached out to the conservatives he alienated in 2000, even seeking to make amends with evangelist Jerry Falwell, whom he once labeled intolerant.

“I don’t think you can win with just this constituency, but no Republican can win without the support of that constituency,” Scheffler said.

McCain will be raising money for Rep. Jim Nussle’s bid for governor and state Sen. Jeff Lamberti’s run for Congress. He’s even helping a Republican legislative candidate.

Meeting with tax critics
Just as important as these events are McCain’s private sessions. The senator asked to meet with Iowans for Tax Relief, a 58,000-member group that runs the state’s largest political action committee. Ed Failor, one of the group’s leaders, said they plan to question McCain about taxes.

In February, McCain voted to extend President Bush’s tax cuts on dividends and capital gains, which he once had opposed. He said ending the tax cuts would be tantamount to raising taxes.

Also meeting privately with McCain is Marlys Popma, a veteran activist with close ties to the evangelical Christian community.

“Conservatives don’t know him at all,” Popma said. “Right now the ball is in McCain’s court.”

Conservatives were unhappy with McCain’s role in brokering a Senate deal last year that averted a showdown over Bush’s judicial nominations and the Senate’s own rules on filibusters.

“I know a lot of conservatives who were very upset with that because they wanted a showdown, they wanted the filibuster rule on presidential opponents abolished,” said Chuck Hurley, who heads the Iowa Family Policy Center.

Popma agreed, arguing that ending the Democrats’ ability to filibuster judicial nominations could have cleared the way for more conservative judges who might overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Campaign caps, Kennedy
Scheffler and others also cited McCain’s push for the 2002 campaign finance law that imposes limits on campaign spending by interest groups.

“His involvement in that has caused huge problems for us,” Scheffler said.

“It muzzles groups like ours,” Hurley said.

Other conservatives expressed reservations about McCain’s work with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., to produce compromise legislation that would create a path for undocumented immigrant workers to earn citizenship.

McCain also has been on the other side of Iowa proponents of ethanol, the fuel derived from crops such as corn.

Hurley hasn’t forgotten McCain’s clash with religious conservatives during the 2000 campaign, when he labeled some “evil.”

“I don’t think Christian leaders who urge people to vote biblically, I don’t think that’s an evil influence,” Hurley said. “To me that statement by McCain is an extreme slap in the face to my faith.”

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