Christian Coalition officer backs Romney in ’08

National coalition’s secretary and board member to serve as S.C. adviser

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updated 2:01 p.m. ET March 22, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A Christian Coalition of America officer who ran a successful campaign to ban gay marriage in South Carolina said Thursday he is endorsing Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential bid and will work for the campaign.

Drew McKissick, the national coalition’s secretary and board member, will be a paid “South Carolina grass roots adviser” for the campaign, Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said Thursday.

McKissick, who also is co-chairman of the South Carolina GOP’s rules committee, said his endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor has nothing to do with his own role with the Christian Coalition.

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Gitcho and McKissick said there was no link between the endorsement and the paid campaign job.

“I started to go through this process a year ago,” McKissick said of the endorsement. “It became obvious to me who was likely be the consensus conservative choice.”

The campaign declined to say how much McKissick would be paid.

Last year, Romney’s political action committee donated $5,000 to McKissick’s SC for Marriage group, which pushed a state constitutional amendment that prevents any type of legal recognition of same-sex unions. While the group solicited cash from other presidential hopefuls, Romney was the only one to write a check, McKissick said.

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