To win, Republican candidates must offer “common-sense ideas” that demonstrate compassion and expand their support beyond base Republican voters, said Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio), who has played a major role this year raising money for and advising the GOP’s top Senate recruits.For background, read The Culture War is Over! Liberal Media Declare Democrat Victory
UPDATE 11/13/15: Republican Gov. Decrees 'Gay Rights' for Contractors
Also click headlines below to read previous articles:
Republican Party Platform OKs Abortion and 'Gay Marriage'
GOP Funds Pro-abortion Homosexual Candidates
More GOP Leaders Shun Moral Values to Win Elections
GOP Strategy: Dump Old Uneducated Christian Voters
Will GOP Go Pro-abortion in Addition to Pro-Gay?
Also read 'Gay Marriage' Not Favored in Polls, Only in Court
-- From "In heated midterm contests, GOP candidates explore a move to the middle" by Philip Rucker and Reid Wilson, Washington Post 9/21/14
In a midterm election year in which the political climate and map of battleground states clearly favors Republicans, many GOP candidates are nevertheless embracing some Democratic priorities in an effort to win over skeptical voters.
Even on social issues, an area where the GOP traditionally has hewed to the wishes of its evangelical Christian base, many Senate hopefuls have backed same-sex marriage or over-the-counter access to birth-control pills.
In the face of sustained attacks from Democrats on issues of reproductive health, Republican Senate challengers in Colorado, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia have said they support over-the-counter access to birth-control pills.
Social conservative leaders cautioned that candidates who move to the middle on social issues risk alienating their conservative base.
“Those in the Republican Party who have stepped away [from conservative positions] thinking that’s an answer to beat the Democrats are going to put themselves in some unnecessary danger in losing some people going to the polls,” said Connie Mackey, president of FRC Action PAC, the Family Research Council’s political arm.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Efforts underway to change the GOP on same sex marriage" by Leigh Ann Caldwell, CNN 9/20/14
Gay conservatives are undertaking the most coordinated effort yet to change the Republican Party's position on same-sex marriage. Their approach: one state and one Republican activist at a time.
Tyler Deaton, campaign manager at Young Conservatives for Freedom to Marry, . . . thinks that momentum is on its side. More Republicans are announcing their support for same-sex marriage. Three openly gay Republicans ran for Congress this year (one lost in the primaries) and Republican lawmakers are slowly announcing their support.
Their campaign is targeted and funded. They have launched in the first four and arguably most influential of the presidential nominating states: New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina. And the national organization Freedom to Marry has committed $1 million to the effort.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Young conservatives stump for a gay-friendly GOP" by Laura Myers, Las Vegas Review-Journal 9/16/14
. . . a group of young conservatives traveling the country — visiting battleground states such as Nevada first — as part of a $1 million campaign to get the national Republican Party to support gay marriage in its party platform in 2016. The group has been to Iowa and New Hampshire. South Carolina is the next stop.
Deaton said the campaign is encouraging young conservatives to become delegates to the Republican National Convention, where the platform language will be set in 2016 as the GOP meeting votes on its presidential nominee. The convention will be held in Cleveland.
He said the national GOP platform has five sections with anti-gay or anti-gay marriage language. The young conservatives want the language replaced with statements backing same-sex marriage.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "[Republican] Monica Wehby backs gay marriage in TV ad" by James Hohmann, Politico 9/9/14
A Republican Senate candidate in Oregon . . . Monica Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon, has been attacked by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley as just another cookie-cutter conservative. The first-time candidate supports abortion rights and gay marriage, and she’s looking for ways to show voters in the blue state that she’s different.
Republicans in blue states endorsing gay marriage is not totally new. Three openly gay GOP House candidates have featured their partners in campaign materials, including Richard Tisei in Massachusetts, Dan Innis in New Hampshire and Carl DeMaio in California.
If Wehby won, she would join four Republican senators who support same-sex marriage: Illinois’ Mark Kirk, Ohio’s Rob Portman, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.
On the issue of abortion, she said: “As Republicans, we believe in limited government. Why would we want [the feds] to have any reach into our personal and private lives?”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Michigan Republicans may pair gay rights amendment with 'religious freedom' act" by Jonathan Oosting, MLive.com (Booth Newspapers, Grand Rapids, MI) 9/19/14
[House Speaker Jase] Bolger is exploring the possibility of pairing an Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act [Gay Agenda] amendment with a Michigan version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which aims to limit laws that would substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.
Updating Elliott-Larsen would allow Michigan residents to file a civil rights complaint or lawsuit if they were the target of discrimination in the workplace, housing market or place of public accommodation because they are gay.
Bolger's goal, according to sources familiar with his thinking, is a legal framework that would prevent a Michigan business from firing someone who is gay or denying them service, unless that service involves a form of religious expression.
A business coalition of large employers and civil rights advocates began pushing the Republican-led Legislature to add sexual orientation and gender identity protections to Michigan law in May, and momentum continued to build when Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said he’d like lawmakers to consider the issue this fall.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
And read American Decline: Obama's Gay Agenda vs. Christians as well as America Going to Hell; Christians Lose Convictions
