Social Conservatives Organize for Bill McCollum, But Why?

John Stemberger of Florida Family PAC and the Florida Family Policy Council, and Dennis Baxley formerly with the Christian Coalition, announced on Wednesday that they have organized social conservatives for Attorney General Bill McCollums bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. McCollum, who a few months ago was considered a heavy favorite for the nomination, now trails health-care executive Rick Scott in the polls.

There is a now a clear consensus among the leadership of the conservative pro-life and pro-family movement that Bill McCollum is the only candidate we trust to stand in support of life, marriage and family issues, wrote Stemberger and Baxley. Grass-roots leaders in virtually every region of the state are supporting Bill McCollum and the numbers are growing daily. We will not allow our state to be bought by a Texas billionaire lawyer who has lived here for only less than a decade.

Many of the grass-roots leaders that Stemberger and Baxley list seem more like the conservative establishment: Sen. Steve Wise of Jacksonville, Rep. Kelli Stargel of Lakeland and News Max Magazine, for example. While the release that Stemberger and Baxley sent out maintains they had grass-roots supporters in virtually every county in the state, only leaders of 16 of Floridas 67 counties are listed.

They have their work cut out for them. A poll released by Rasmussen earlier Wednesday finds that 59 percent of Floridians consider Scott a conservative, compared to 53 percent who think McCollum is one. Stemberger and Baxley will do their best to counter these perceptions, but there is one huge problem.

In the last presidential election, McCollum backed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination. In the interview below with Justin Sayfie, McCollum clearly indicated that he disagrees with Giuliani on abortion. The fact remains that McCollum backed a presidential candidate with a controversial personal life who, in his years in public service, supported abortion rights, including partial-birth abortion, and was a backer of same-sex partnerships, if not quite same-sex marriage. And, yes, Giuliani backed liberal icon Gov. Mario Cuomo back in 1994 over Republican candidate George Pataki.

Giuliani, backed by Bill McCollum as his chairman in Florida, was the most socially liberal, major Republican presidential candidate since the days of John Lindsey, Nelson Rockefeller and John B. Anderson. Its something Stemberger and Baxley should take into account as they try to convince conservatives that McCollum is a better choice than Scott in fighting for their values.