Whitman Warns Against GOP Platform Extremism

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, a moderate Republican widely considered a potential vice presidential candidate, expressed concern Thursday that the GOP faces defeat in next year’s election if it takes extreme positions on social issues, including adopting a platform with an uncompromising anti-abortion plank.

“What I would dearly hope that we can avoid,” she said, “is going to the convention and having a bloody, knock-down, drag-out fight prior to the convention or during the convention.”

Whitman, interviewed at a Times Washington Bureau luncheon, said that moderate Republicans working through the Committee for Responsible Government are hoping to head off the adoption of an anti-abortion plank. The committee was recently chartered in New York and New Jersey, but she said it plans to expand across the nation in the near future and will include other moderate Republican governors.

“I do feel very strongly that if we take extreme positions on the social issues and make those litmus tests for membership in the party, that ultimately we will not be the winning party or the national party,” she said. “There is enough difference of opinion on . . . particular issues that if you do set them up as criteria for membership in the Republican Party, that it will work against our best interests.”

The Republican National Committee has said that the platform is the document of the party’s presidential nominee. But Whitman said “there’s a lot of groundwork that can be laid” by moderates to make it easier for the nominee to move away from extreme positions.

Whitman said she would not accuse Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) of moving so far to the right in his quest for the nomination that he is writing people out of the party or that his “rhetoric is so harsh that he can’t appeal to the center.”

Asked, however, if she thinks former President Richard Nixon’s advice to Dole to run to the right to get the nomination and then run to the center to get elected was a winning game plan, she said:

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“I think it’s very difficult to do that too much. First of all, you’ve got to have some core beliefs. On some of these subject areas, you just can’t change your mind. You can’t be pro-choice one minute and anti-choice the next and be accepted by the public. We’ve seen that happen to candidates and they get blown right out of the water.”

While in Washington, she held a closed-door session with Dole, who is still way out front in the polls among candidates for the party’s nomination. She predicted that if the New Jersey primary were held today, Dole would win it.

Whitman has not endorsed any candidate but made clear she disagreed with some positions both California Gov. Pete Wilson and Dole have taken in recent weeks.

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Poll Watch

The Wilson Factor?

The Poll: A new New Hampshire poll shows Gov. Pete Wilson with little support in a state that holds the first primary of the campaign.

Wilson has campaigned heavily in New Hampshire and has very high name recognition among likely Republican primary voters there. Unfortunately for him, the impression is not positive. Among likely voters, 22% have a favorable impression of Wilson, 21% a negative view, and 49% are neutral.

The GOP Field in N.H.

Bob Dole: 32%

Pat Buchanan: 13%

Lamar Alexander: 8%

Phil Gramm: 6%

Pete Wilson: 4%

Methodology: Conducted Sept. 19-21 by Political/Media Research for the Concord Monitor, 351 likely GOP voters statewide. Margin of error plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.