By DEXTER DUGGAN
GILBERT, Ariz. — A lineup of pro-life Republican politicians, including the major GOP challenger for John McCain’s U.S. Senate seat this year, spoke to a gathering of Catholics seeking to become more politically informed in this booming Phoenix suburb.
Although many Catholics are engaged in positive efforts, from building up their own families to defending the culture, they could benefit from better knowing the candidates and the implications of casting their votes, Christine Accurso, a veteran pro-life activist who helped organize the meeting, told The Wanderer.
It was a meeting of individual Gilbert-area citizens, not sponsored by the Catholic Church. Organizers issued an invitation “to meet the pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom candidates that we believe are worthy of your vote.”
“Let’s face it, most Catholics are not involved in politics,” Accurso told the June 15 gathering in a community-center meeting room here.
Once they’ve determined that a candidate is pro-life, then they can consider other issues, she added.
Family-practice physician Kelli Ward, McCain’s main primary-election foe for the Senate seat, told the gathering that she was warned, “If you run against John McCain, you’re committing political suicide.” However, Ward said, she wants “to work effectively on issues that are important to us….Arizona deserves a Republican senator” who agrees with its people.
Introducing Ward to the gathering, Accurso, who used to be director of a pro-life pregnancy center, said that she saw Ward’s “expertise came shining through beautifully” when she defended a pro-life bill in the Arizona State Senate.
Ward resigned that Senate seat last December to focus on her campaign against McCain.
“I can tell you we need a solid pro-life representative” in the Senate, Accurso said, adding that she couldn’t vote for McCain because the senator voted three times for human embryonic-research funding. “Little babies do not need to be a research project.”
Another meeting organizer, Gary Livacari, who used to work in politics in Washington, D.C., told The Wanderer: “I strongly support Dr. Ward. She is a reliable advocate for families and life.”
Asked why she is better than McCain, Livacari cited the incumbent’s “consistent refusal to fight for conservative values. He continually sides with Washington and the special interests over the good people who have elected him.”
After opening the meeting with a prayer that included the Sign of the Cross, Livacari recalled Pope Benedict XVI saying that the Gospel “should penetrate every aspect of our lives.”
People have to follow God’s will in voting, too, Livacari said, observing that if society doesn’t protect “innocent human life, what good is it?” The audience applauded.
One of the officeholders who spoke expressed his appreciation at the turnout for this standing-room-only initial meeting, explaining that sometimes only a very few people attend political events.
More than 50 people filled the seating at this meeting room and stood against the walls.
The Town of Gilbert’s website shows its population boomed from fewer than 2,000 people in 1970 to 233,000 people in 2014, with an anticipated level of 305,000 in 2030. Located on the southeastern edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area, Gilbert is considered a family-friendly suburb out where ranch land begins.
This suburb might appeal to unhappy conservatives stuck in cold liberal cities where the left-wing Democratic Party’s Culture of Death dominates.
Every candidate who spoke here, from the town-council level to the U.S. Congress, was a proud pro-life Republican.
After she spoke, Ward told The Wanderer that the latest poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP) puts her tied at 41 percent with McCain when only she and he are considered by respondents. McCain has served five six-year terms as an Arizona U.S. senator. “We’re doing great in the polls,” Ward said.
Ward said she expects McCain will release still more of his negative ads against her just before early voting for Arizona’s August 30 primary election begins. “He can’t run on his own record. He said so” at an event in Prescott, Ariz., she said.
A May 17 news release from PPP said that if all the GOP candidates for the August primary are included, McCain leads at 39 percent, Ward is at 26 percent, three other candidates total nine percent, with the rest of respondents undecided.
“Ward is polling this competitively at this point despite having only 41 percent name recognition,” the news release said.
If McCain advances to the November general election against presumed liberal Democrat foe Ann Kirkpatrick, currently a congresswoman, the poll said McCain would win by six points. If Ward faces Kirkpatrick, the poll said, Ward would win by two points.
The June 13 post at the popular “Seeing Red AZ” conservative blog, denouncing McCain’s “vile ads” against Ward, said, “Let’s make sure she’s able to get her principled, conservative message out to the voters. Unlike McCain, she doesn’t have a well-oiled cadre of lobbyists and liberal PACs to keep the money flowing.”
Audience member Omar Davidson, who said he moved to Arizona 10 years ago from Tennessee, told The Wanderer that he and his wife support Ward. “As Christians, we have to support a true conservative who will not only protect life that is being born but protect it against terrorism,” he said.
A campaign strategist not affiliated with Ward who asked not to be named told The Wanderer that her effort has weak areas. “The campaign seems disorganized, with most voters not receiving any information from Ward’s campaign directly. That means that the only message they are getting is the negative message McCain’s people are sending,” he said.
First The Primary
On May 11, National Right to Life, based in Washington, D.C., announced it was endorsing McCain. NRL President Carol Tobias said, “All voters who are concerned with the right to life and with the protection of the most vulnerable members of the human family should vote to return John McCain to the U.S. Senate, so that he can continue to work to advance vital pro-life public policies.”
The NRL endorsement referred to Democrat Kirkpatrick as McCain’s “opponent,” but failed to note that McCain first has to win the Arizona primary election before he could face Kirkpatrick in the general.
NRL said: “Sen. John McCain has supported pro-life measures that protect mothers and their unborn children, in stark contrast with his opponent, Ann Kirkpatrick, whose pro-abortion extremism is demonstrated by her co-sponsorship of HR 448, a proposed federal law to invalidate virtually all state and federal limits on abortion.”
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