Christian Coalition Leader Opts for New Group: GOP

Ralph Reed, who in eight years as director of the Christian Coalition became a nationally recognized champion for religious conservatives and a useful villain for liberals, announced Wednesday that he will resign his post to become a campaign consultant.

Reed, 35, said that the switch would allow him to take a more direct role in Republican politics and that he plans to focus on electing candidates who oppose abortion. Reed said that he hopes his firm--likely to be based in Atlanta--eventually will work on “hundreds of campaigns across the nation” on behalf of “pro-family, pro-life and pro-free enterprise candidates at every level of government.”

He also left open the possibility that he might run for office himself, though not in the immediate future.

“I never intended to stay in this job forever,” Reed said in explaining his decision to leave the coalition. He added that the group will continue to draw upon the resources of its founder, the Rev. Pat Robertson, and will benefit from “new blood” and “new ideas.”

Though known mostly as a crusader for the moral principles favored by conservative Christians, Reed proved a shrewd political operative, skillful at behind-the-scenes maneuvers that kept the coalition a prominent player in GOP politics without hitching its fate to a particular candidate.

While the coalition owed much of its prominence to Reed’s blend of fervor and pragmatism, GOP strategists said that they expect it to remain a formidable political force. It will benefit, the analysts said, from the strong organizational foundation Reed has established.

Reed noted that, during his tenure, the coalition’s budget grew from $200,000 when it officially began in 1989 to $27 million last year. It now numbers 1.9 million members in 2000 local chapters. Among the group’s most effective tools are the voter guides that rate candidates on a variety of issues of special interest to Christians. In the 1996 campaign, Reed said, 45 million such pamphlets were distributed in 125,000 churches.

Reed and Robertson appear to have parted on good terms. Robertson released a letter praising Reed for “his magnificent service.” Reed, who officially leaves his post Sept. 1, is to remain on the coalition’s board of directors and help in the search for a successor.

While there is no heir apparent, Reed said that the group would be seeking a successor who would ensure “that our message is an authentically Christian message, concerned not just about political issues but concerned about issues of social justice, including poverty, crime and race.”

That echoes a broader agenda for the coalition that Reed began to tout last year as part of an effort to broaden its appeal, especially to minorities.

The rise of the Christian Coalition under Reed’s leadership represented the most dramatic step in the recent emergence of religious conservatives as a potent force in U.S. politics.

Robertson founded the coalition after his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. In recent years, Democrats have sought to exploit the influence of Reed and other Christian conservatives over the GOP by charging that the party had been “taken over” by them.