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chapter five Michigan A War on the Home Front? james m. penning and corwin e. smidt Following the 2004 u.s. presidential election, many analysts concluded that conservative Christians associated with the Christian Right contributed in important ways to President Bush’s reelection (Finley 2004; Riley 2004; Hitt 2004).1 Exit polls revealed that about one-fifth of American voters selected “moral values” as the most important issue in casting their vote—outpacing even the war in Iraq and the economy.2 Among these “moral values” voters, Bush won an overwhelming 80 percent. Christian Right leaders were quick to claim credit for the electoral success of Bush and the Republican Party. Roberta Coombs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, asserted that “Christian evangelicals made the major difference once again this year” (AFP 2004). Other analysts , however, issued a word of caution, attributing Bush’s success to a variety of factors. Political scientist James Q. Wilson suggested that “one can make a good case that the economy or the war in Iraq were just as important as morality” in deciding the 2004 presidential election (Wilson 2004). Still others argued Bush’s victory reflected weakness in his opponent, John Kerry. Detroit Free Press columnist Dawson Bell, for example, argued that Kerry was “too lame, too liberal, [and] too unlovable” (Bell 2004b). In any case, the 2004 Bush campaign clearly made every effort to mobilize conservative Christian voters. The GOP worked diligently “to stay abreast of the Christian Right and consulted with the movement’s leaders in weekly conference calls” (Cooperman and Edsall 2004). In addition , GOP operatives spent considerable effort at the grassroots level to mobilize pastors and congregants who were concerned about issues such as abortion, gay rights, gambling, and pornography (Riley 2004; Ostling 2004; O’Donnell 2004). 98 Michigan: A War on the Home Front? 99 Some observers have suggested that these “cultural” issues were even more important than the efforts of party organizations in mobilizing Christian Right voters. Particularly important, in this view, was the fact that in 2004 eleven states had proposals to ban same-sex marriages on the ballot. According to Roberta Coombs of the Christian Coalition, “There is no doubt that because four radical left-wing Massachusetts judges ruled that homosexual marriages are constitutional last year, there was a conservative backlash which played a major role in the election outcome” (AFP 2004). Nonetheless, one must be cautious in making sweeping claims about increased Christian Right turnout because exit polls do not permit direct comparison between evangelical turnout in 2000 and 2004. In 2000 voters were asked, “Do you consider yourself part of the conservative Christian political movement, also known as the religious right?” In 2004, however, this question was changed to “Would you describe yourself as a born-again or evangelical Christian?” The latter wording probably taps a larger pool of voters and seems likely to produce larger estimates of Christian Right turnout. Nonetheless, as Washington Post reporters Alan Cooperman and Thomas Edsall note, we at least have solid evidence that “the percentage of voters who said that they attend church more than once a week grew from 14 to 16 percent, a significant difference in an election decided by three percentage points.” In addition, Cooperman and Edsall note that “the percent of the electorate that believes that abortion should be ‘illegal in all cases’ grew from 13 to 16 percent. These voters backed Bush by 77 percent to 22 percent” (Cooperman and Edsall 2004). In view of conflicting assertions, analyzing the Christian Right’s role in the 2004 election is important. Toward that end, this chapter examines the Christian Right in Michigan, focusing in particular on three key factors : the social, economic, and political context or ecology within which the Christian Right in Michigan operates; the major organizations and groups associated with the Christian Right in Michigan; and the political activities and impact of Christian Right organizations in the 2004 election. Although focusing on a single state entails the usual problems of external validity, it has the advantage of permitting a more nuanced analysis. In addition, there are three more specific reasons for focusing on Michigan. First, Michigan is a relatively large, politically competitive state that was “targeted” by both the Bush and Kerry campaigns in 2004. Preelection polls revealed that either candidate could carry Michigan, and both candidates made repeated visits to the state, spending considerable money seeking to mobilize the state’s voters (Christoff 2004). Second, Michigan contains a large number of...

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