It's just past
8:30 a.m. on a snowy weekend morning in Des Moines when
the unassuming presidential candidate strolls into a hotel
conference room. "Hey, folks. I'm Sam Brownback. Good
to meet you," says the Republican senator from Kansas,
personally greeting the sparse crowd of some two dozen
people munching on pastries and sipping coffee.
Standing at the
podium, Brownback eschews talk of his accomplishments and
criticism of his better-known rivals. Instead, he explains
where he stands on various issues and seeks to define
himself for the right-leaning GOP voters who matter in
primaries as "a full-scale economic and social
conservative with a smile."
With the GOP's
influential conservative wing still scrambling for a
candidate to back for the 2008 nomination, Brownback
presents a paradox. He has the kind of unquestioned
credentials as a family values crusader that
conservatives have long sought in a presidential candidate.
Yet he hasn't been able to leverage his credentials to
break out of a crowded pack of White House hopefuls.
One potential
reason: Some Republicans fear he may be too conservative to
win a national election.
"We realize that
right now probably the Republican Party is the
underdog in the presidential race," said Mike Mahaffey, a
former Iowa state GOP chairman who has not backed
anyone yet. "We're looking for the candidate who can
win that race."
Top-tier
candidates Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are
viewed as more electable than Brownback, but all have
political vulnerabilities and histories that make them
suspect to conservatives.
Still, the three
are outpacing Brownback in building solid national
campaigns, with Giuliani and McCain leading in national
popularity polls. Brownback barely registers in such
surveys.
Brownback,
nevertheless, sees a significant opportunity to emerge as
the right-flank's choice. "The beauty of it for me is,
you've got the three guys with more money and
organization to my left in a conservative party,"
Brownback told the Associated Press, despite the fact that
McCain's voting record is very much in line with his.
Still, Brownback
concedes the challenges that lie ahead as an underdog.
"Every day you're just kind of scratching and climbing and
moving forward," he said.
For years,
Brownback has had a loyal national following among cultural
and religious conservatives. They gravitate toward his
fierce opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, and
embryonic stem-cell research and his embrace of the
Bible's teachings.
An evangelical
Protestant who converted to Catholicism, Brownback is so
conservative on social issues that he held up the nomination
of a Michigan judge to the federal bench over her
attendance at a lesbian commitment ceremony in
Massachusetts in 2002.
He has tried to
shepherd through Congress legislation that would create a
constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man
and a woman. And last week he stood alone in backing
the Pentagon's top general, Peter Pace, over his
remarks that homosexual acts are immoral.
As he campaigns,
Brownback hopes to expand his base of loyalists to
include more economic conservatives by emphasizing lower
taxes and reduced spending. His record on that front
won praise last week from the national antitax group
Club for Growth, which called him a "defender of
economic freedom."
Two issues,
however, could hamper him with some
Republicans--immigration and the Iraq war.
Some
conservatives don't like his support of a temporary
guest-worker program for a chunk of the estimated 11
million illegal immigrants in the United States even
though he contends his view is consistent with the
teachings of his faith. Others are turned off by his
opposition to President Bush's troop increase in Iraq,
which he calls incomplete because of the need for a
political solution.
In Iowa, New
Hampshire, and South Carolina, Brownback focuses on securing
the backing of grassroots organizations and religious groups
to validate his conservative resume and help him turn
out voters so he can compete with candidates who have
the money and star power.
The conservative
constituency is powerful in two of three states that
hold early nominating contests. Exit polling from 2000 shows
that 37% of voters in Iowa's GOP caucuses and 34% of
voters in South Carolina's Republican primary
identified themselves as members of the "white
religious right." The group was smaller, just 16%, in New
Hampshire.
By his own
admission Brownback must perform strongly in Iowa. So he
campaigns there once a week, usually meeting with small
groups of potential supporters in venues like this
hotel conference room.
On this day he
looks relaxed in khaki slacks and a cream-colored sweater
over a button-down shirt as he gives his low-key stump
speech, one hand clutching a cup of coffee, the other
hand in his pocket.
First, he rattles
through his biography: his upbringing on a Kansas farm,
his 25-year marriage and five kids, and his Midwestern
education. Then he gives his fiscal-restraint pitch:
an alternative flat tax, personal Social Security
savings accounts, and a commission to identify and
eliminate government waste.
Next, he talks of
the need for a "moral reformation" in the country:
outlaw abortion, marriage defined as a union of man and a
woman, and faith permitted in the public square. He
touches on his national security vision: the war
on terrorism won, a political solution in Iraq, and
immigration reform that blends the rule of law with
compassion.
Finally, he says:
"I can win. I need you to win this. Iowa is key."
Some of those who
attended knew very little about Brownback but showed up
out of curiosity. Immigration dominated questions for the
senator, an indication that the issue could be a
sticking point for him in Iowa. Afterward, several
said they'd be interested in learning more about him.
David Hennessy of
Ankeny, a Des Moines suburb, said Brownback earned
points for acknowledging that while people want easy answers
on immigration, there are none. "He was very
forthcoming and honest with his assessment," he said.
"He has some good
conservative ideas that focus on the family," said
Marsha Kephart from Carlisle who checked him out on the
Internet early that morning.
Andrew Wrightsman
of Waukee said he liked what he heard about Social
Security and other financial matters. "He's great as long as
he sticks to it and doesn't wane under pressure," he
said.
Brownback's main
advantage, analysts say, is his consistency on
conservative issues.
Said Peverill
Squire, a University of Iowa political science professor:
"He doesn't have some of the questions about his credentials
that others do." (Liz Sidoti, AP)