Summary
It's why groups like the Republican Leadership Council, an organization that promotes a "fiscally conservative, socially inclusive" GOP, are beginning to work from the ground up, backing candidates for city and county councils and working to turn the tide in state legislatures-all in the hopes of stemming the influence of the right wing and bringing the party back to the center of American politics. On a grassroots level, he says the GOPs moderate wing must be rebuilt the same way the Christian right took over the party: fielding candidates at the most local of levels and getting moderate Republicans elected to school boards, city councils, state legislatures and ultimately Congress. Come 2010, the redistricting process is one Whitman fears will make it even harder for moderate Republicans to win and hold onto congressional seats, as a slew of marginal GOP districts may very well be re-drawn into territory that's more favorable to Democrats.
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It's No Party for Republican Moderates
WYNE GILCHREST HAS JUST ABOUT HAD IT with his party, and he won't shy away from telling you about it. In March, the eight-term Maryland congressman and longtime Republican moderate lost a primary to staunchly conservative state Sen. Andy Harris, who won largely on the strength of votes from what Gilchrest terms "Karl Rove's party."
"They knew how to get the base out," says Gilchrest sarcastically. "Just say 'conservative' 15 times in one sentence."It's not that his campaign didn't see it coming, Gilchrest says. For months the objective was getting moderates out to the polls-voters who simply didn't turn out come Election Day. If they had...See the full content of this document
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