Foes of Abortion Try to Pressure Dole During Christian Coalition Conference : Politics: Hecklers demand that senator sign pledge of support for GOP platform plank opposing the procedure. Group was egged on by Gramm speech.

“Sign the pledge! Sign the pledge!”

That was the shout heard from a few dozen fervent opponents of abortion when Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), an abortion foe himself, took the podium at Friday’s opening session of the Christian Coalition’s annual strategy conference.

The hecklers had been egged on by Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, Dole’s chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination, when he addressed the audience of more than 4,000 earlier in the day--a tactic that demonstrated the intense competition for the conservative Christians who make up the party’s most potent constituency.

Although Dole’s opposition to abortion has been as consistent as Gramm’s, the Texas senator pointed out that he, unlike Dole, had signed a pledge to support readoption of the party’s current platform plank that flatly opposes abortion.

If Gramm was trying to get attention focused on this point, he succeeded. But if he was trying to get Dole to lose his temper--a weakness that he has displayed in earlier campaigns--he failed.

The leader of the Republican race for the 1996 nomination simply glowered for a moment or two at those shouting until they sat down. About midway into his 20-minute talk, Dole referred to his steadfast opposition to abortion and remarked: “Just look at the record, don’t look at the pledges.”

Dole gave no reason for his refusal to sign the controversial statement, which also has been signed by four other Republican contenders--Patrick J. Buchanan, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Rep. Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove and former State Department official Alan Keyes.

But taking such an oath would limit Dole’s flexibility at next year’s national convention in San Diego. At that time, if he were the likely nominee, Dole might face a choice between backing a platform compromise on abortion or enduring a divisive floor fight over the issue, which could hurt his chances of winning the fall election.

In a late-starting, extra-long closing address, Dornan invoked Yeats, St. Peter, Jesus and Ronald Reagan and called up the memory of Chappaquiddick. He promised that “a Dornan presidency would turn the history of this country around.”

But most of all Dornan compared himself to his competitors, men who “talk the talk, and it’s a good talk.”

Gramm-inspired heckling over the platform plank could become a headache for Dole in the future. But for the time being, evidence suggests that he is in a comfortable position. None of his rivals has generated the support among the conservative Christians that would be needed to overtake Dole’s current commanding lead in the polls.

In a recent survey of membership of the Christian Coalition--the largest of the conservative religious political organizations--Dole held a slight lead over the pack, so small that it is within the margin of error of the poll, coalition sources said. Gramm and Buchanan are in a dead heat for second place, with another 25% undecided.

The worrisome aspect for Gramm, as coalition founder Pat Robertson noted in an interview, is that “Gramm and Dole are not seen as that much dissimilar.” And it is by no means clear that the platform plank pledge would make enough of a difference to give Gramm the opening he is trying to create.

Bill Scoggan, a retired federal worker from Manassas, Va., who came to the conference to try to decide between Gramm and Dole, said he agreed with Gramm that Dole should sign the pledge. But asked if Dole’s failure to do so would turn him into a Gramm backer, Scoggan shook his head. “That’s not enough,” he said.

And some of those present have doubts about Gramm’s fealty to the conservative cause. Diane Banister, an urban affairs specialist from Los Angeles who favors Buchanan, said she would prefer Dole to Gramm. “I don’t think Gramm is really solid on the issues,” she said. But she added that Dole, if elected, could be counted on “to move with a conservative Republican Congress.”

This sort of finickiness is music to the ears of the coalition’s leadership.

“We did not come from every corner of this nation to endorse any candidate, nor to anoint any front-runner or be married to any candidate,” executive director Ralph Reed told the cheering attendees in his opening remarks.

“We do not seek to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party or any political party,” Reed added. “We must not become to Republicans what the AFL-CIO, the feminists and the radical left have become to the Democratic Party. We will not become just another interest group. The question is not who we endorse, it is who will endorse our agenda.”

Actually Gramm, Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)--who is still keeping his presidential options open and who also addressed the Friday session--already have smiled upon the coalition’s agenda, a 10-point “contract with the American family.”

“These are the campaign workers who knock on doors and make the phone calls,” Robertson said, speaking from his own experience as a presidential candidate in 1988 when he startled the political world by finishing ahead of George Bush in Iowa precinct caucuses.

Most of the major GOP contenders are taking advantage of the two-day meeting to seek support among these activists. However, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter was not invited because he has publicly attacked Reed and Robertson. California Gov. Pete Wilson--an abortion-rights supporter--pleaded a schedule conflict.

Wilson’s decision not to come was probably prudent, judging from the assessment of his candidacy offered by Robertson. “I doubt very much that this group would give Pete Wilson any significant support,” he said. “He doesn’t come through to the nation as being the advocate of any particular view.”

Times staff writer Maria La Ganga contributed to this story.