Touchy Social Issues Split Candidates on Party Lines

Politically touchy social issues generally divide the 1988 presidential candidates along party lines, but among Democrats, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. has taken a solo position on school prayer that could help him in the crucial Super Tuesday primaries in the South next March.

Gore, who also has struck a more conservative stance than his rivals on defense and foreign policy, advocates allowing public school officials to set aside a “moment of silence for individual prayer or contemplation.”

In response to a Times questionnaire on key social issues, Gore was the only one of the six declared Democratic candidates to call for testing Supreme Court rulings against state-sponsored prayers and periods devoted to “voluntary prayer and meditation.”

Gore’s position was similar to that of the six Republican presidential hopefuls, who championed official periods of “voluntary prayer” or “silence.”

The Supreme Court is considering whether a “moment of silence” law in New Jersey violates the Constitution’s ban on promoting religion. In 1984, the court threw out an Alabama law calling for a daily period set aside for “voluntary prayer and meditation,” but several justices said they would look favorably on a non-religious state law calling for a daily moment of silence.

Gore’s positions on abortion and capital punishment also distinguished him from most of the other Democrats in The Times’ survey and could aid him in his native South, which is more conservative than the rest of the nation on social issues.

On the other hand, all the GOP contenders substantially agreed with each other on issues in the questionnaire. Besides school prayer, the issues were abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, pornography and tuition tax credits.

Only Kansas Sen. Bob Dole among Republicans stood out somewhat on one issue: whether the government should require employers to use affirmative action plans to improve the condition of women and members of minority groups in the work force.

Dole alone said specifically that he supports current policy “requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and minorities.” But, echoing his rivals, he opposed the use of rigid numerical quotas, which go beyond currently administered goals and timetables.

Mindful of the broad ideological range among Democratic voters, Gore sought to temper his call for an officially scheduled moment of silence in public classrooms by insisting that he opposes “government-run prayer.”

“I am unwilling to allow the government to take over responsibility for telling our children how to pray, how to worship and what doctrine to incorporate into religious services,” he said.

‘Isolates’ Children

However, Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) contended that “even requiring a moment of silence where children can silently pray or meditate isolates those children for whom silent prayer is not a part of their religion or heritage.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, another Democratic candidate, asserted that “there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent our children from praying before, after or during school, in their free time.”

Similarly, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said that “current law allows children to pray. . . . We don’t need formal worship exercises in school to enable children to pray.”

The two remaining Democrats, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, both simply responded “no” to the question: “Do you believe local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?”

Voluntary Prayer

In the Republican contingent, Vice President George Bush, Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV, former television evangelist Pat Robertson and Dole all advocated a period for voluntary prayer, with Dole urging that it be implemented in a constitutional amendment.

Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. called for an equivalent “period of silence.” Kemp combined the two phrases, saying: “I support voluntary prayer . . . through a moment of silence.”

Addressing one of the most explosive social issues, all six Democratic contenders supported the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion, while five Republicans opposed the ruling and the sixth, Haig, said he opposes the abortion procedure except when the mother’s life is in danger.

However, on another important facet of the issue, Gore and Gephardt broke away from fellow Democrats and joined the Republicans in opposing federal funding of abortions for nearly all low-income women.

Aid for Family Planning

Babbitt, apparently recognizing that Congress is unlikely to drop its ban on such funding any time soon, proposed an alternative--more subsidies for family planning--that he said “would free enough resources in the private charitable sector to ensure that every woman has the means to end a pregnancy if she so chooses.”

The government “now spends only $400 million (a year) on family planning, and the Reagan Administration is threatening to reduce that amount and withhold even more funds from family planning organizations,” Babbitt said. “As President, I would reverse this trend.”

At the other extreme, Du Pont said that Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, either by the court or by legislation, and that federal aid should be denied both to low-income women who seek abortions and to organizations that “encourage abortion as a means of birth control.”

On another issue, the candidates were asked if the government should adopt the death penalty for murders committed within federal jurisdiction. Every Democrat except Gore either opposed capital punishment or rejected expansion of the federal death penalty, which currently applies only to aircraft hijackings.

‘Extreme Cases’

“In certain extreme cases,” Gore said, “the imposition of the death penalty may be warranted.”

Babbitt called capital punishment “a just response to some crimes” but said the federal death penalty should not be expanded.

Similarly, Gephardt said that current law, as set down by the Supreme Court in 1972, “responsibly addresses the issues of both capital and corporal punishment.”

Dukakis simply answered “no” on the question of a federal death penalty. But Jackson said flatly, “I am opposed to the death penalty,” and Simon said he was against capital punishment except “in extreme situations involving inmates already serving life sentences.”

The death penalty “discriminates against the poor,” Simon said. “There is no evidence to support the notion that (it) is a deterrent to violent crime. Actually, states without the death penalty historically have had lower murder rates.”

Republicans Back It

All the Republicans supported a death penalty for some federal crimes where it does not apply now.

“I support the establishment of constitutional procedures for the imposition of the death penalty for the most heinous federal crimes of murder, espionage and treason,” Bush said.

Likewise, Dole backed “constitutionally sound procedures” that would allow the death penalty to be imposed for “certain categories of murder” and “certain types of espionage.”

Robertson, who responded to the question in an interview, said: “Dear Lord, I haven’t thought about that one. I think the answer is yes, but I’m not sure--there might be some jurisdictional things of a legal nature. . . . I can’t see frankly anything wrong with a death penalty for federal crimes.”

Kemp, Haig and Du Pont also endorsed a federal death penalty for murder.

On affirmative action, all the Democrats clearly supported the controversial policy of giving preferential treatment to women and minorities in hiring and promotion.

Gephardt, the most passionate, vowed “a rigorous affirmative action enforcement policy” and said that “a clear and unequivocal message must be sent from the President that we take our civil rights seriously in this country.”

Jackson said affirmative action is needed “to offset historic negative action against women, blacks, native Americans, Asians, Hispanics and other minority groups.”

Simon maintained that “we need to do more.” Gore charged that the Reagan Administration “has not done enough.” And Dukakis and Babbitt pledged to keep the heat on federal contractors that are required to meet affirmative action goals.

Stress Opposition

While Dole emphasized a similar promise, his Republican rivals stressed their opposition to quotas.

“Hiring quotas supplant old injustices with new ones,” Bush said.

“I oppose affirmative action in principle because it sacrifices the merit principle,” Haig said. “We need programs to help the less skilled that give them equal opportunities under the law but certainly not quotas.”

Kemp said that the government “must always take ‘affirmative actions’ to uphold the constitutional guarantee of equality for all citizens.” However, he added, “we must not resort to rigid goals and timetables. . . . Rather, we should take positive steps in the areas of economic development, housing, education, job training and job creation to expand opportunity.”

Called ‘Un-American’

Robertson said he opposes quotas because they “are un-American and they discriminate, particularly against the Jewish population who have exceeded in various professions their relative size in the general population.”

Employment Imbalances

Du Pont said that “quotas based on race directly violate” the principle of “a truly colorblind society.” However, he noted that when he was governor of Delaware, “we undertook a very aggressive affirmative action program to right imbalances in state employment patterns, and we achieved important results,” including the appointment of “the first minority individual and the first woman to cabinet posts.”

Among the Republicans, Haig, Kemp, Dole and Bush supported tuition tax credits for children who attend parochial schools. Du Pont said he favors educational vouchers that parents could use to purchase education at public or private schools, and Robertson came out for both tuition tax credits and state-backed vouchers.

Introduced Proposal

“As a matter of equity, we certainly can justify providing some tax incentive to give families the option of letting their children attend parochial or other private schools,” said Dole, who introduced the Administration’s still-unsuccessful tuition tax credit proposal five years ago.

Du Pont criticized the idea, saying that “the problem with tuition tax credits is that they are worth more to upper-income people who pay more in taxes than to lower-income people who really need the assistance.”

Simon led the Democratic attack on both ideas.

Sees Revenue Loss

“Tuition tax credits or vouchers, if enacted, would simply add to our federal deficit by further reducing revenues--revenue losses ranging from $359 million to $885 million in the first three years of proposed legislation from past Congresses,” he said.

Simon also protested that such federal aid “would almost certainly bring some infection of federal control into the private schools.”

On the question of stronger federal regulation of pornography, most of the candidates in both parties cited free-speech concerns but stressed the need for cracking down on child pornography.

In a representative statement, Gephardt urged “strong measures to prevent exploitation of, and harm to, children. Any efforts to implement safeguards to this effect must be examined carefully, however, in order to maintain the necessary protections of the First Amendment right of freedom of speech.”

CANDIDATES AND THE ISSUES: SOCIAL POLICIES Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

REPUBLICANS Vice President George Bush Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Opposes the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

No. “Hiring quotas supplant old injustices with new ones.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Favors “voluntary prayer . . . momentary reflection, meditation.”

Kansas Sen. Bob Dole

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Opposes Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Supports affirmative action by federal contractors but opposes quotas.

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Favors constitutional amendment to “restore voluntary prayer in the public schools.”

Former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Favors letting the court or Congress overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Opposes race-based quotas because the nation must “strive for a truly colorblind society.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Favors voluntary prayer but opposes prayers mandated by officials.

Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr.

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Opposes abortion, except for “saving the mother’s life.”

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Opposes affirmative action because it “sacrifices the merit principle.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Would allow officials to mandate “period of silence” but not texts of prayers.

New York Rep. Jack Kemp

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Favors a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Would enforce anti-bias laws but “not resort to rigid goals and timetables.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Supports voluntary prayer “through a moment of silence.”

Pat Robertson

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Opposes Roe vs. Wade.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

“Quotas are un-American and they discriminate, particularly against the Jewish population.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Supports “voluntary prayer, not mandated prayers.”DEMOCRATS Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Opposes “any effort to weaken or overturn” Roe vs. Wade.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Supports requiring continued affirmative action by federal contractors.

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Opposes “organized school prayer.”

Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Each individual “must make the decision on abortion.”

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Yes.

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

No.

Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Would provide more contraceptives and family planning instead of outlawing abortion.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Would “urge a rigorous affirmative action enforcement policy.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Current law allows children to pray. . . . We don’t need formal worship.”

Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr.

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

“Would do nothing to undermine” Roe vs. Wade.

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Supports using “race and gender as hiring preferences.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

“Moment of silence for individual prayer or contemplation should be allowed.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Supports the right to “private choices without government interference.”

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Would “strongly support affirmative action ... to offset historic negative action.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

Officials “should not dictate the way our children pray.”

Illinois Sen. Paul Simon

Do you favor or oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling that, except in limited circumstances, states may not forbid women from obtaining abortions?

Supports “a woman’s right to an abortion.”

Should the government require certain employers to use affirmative action in hiring and promoting women and members of minority groups in the work force?

Americans “need to do more to support affirmative action programs.”

Do you believe that local public school officials should be allowed to mandate spoken prayers to be recited by students in classrooms?

No approach allows all children “to feel comfortable with a moment of prayer.”