Gary Bauer’s Run on the GOP’s Right Exceeds Limited Hopes

He has posed next to a huge butter sculpture of the Last Supper. He has called on supporters not just to vote for him but to pray for him, too. And a recent Sunday morning found Gary Bauer in the jampacked Trinity Baptist Church here, reading aloud from what he calls his “ultimate briefing book”--the Bible.

“When I walked in the door, I was not a presidential candidate,” Bauer told parishioners. “I’m here as a sinner, just as you are.”

Such spiritual talk is flourishing on the campaign trail, from Elizabeth Hanford Dole’s recollection of a conversation she once had with God to Vice President Al Gore’s description of himself as “a child of the Kingdom.”

It is Bauer, however, who has competed most vigorously for the mantle of the Christian Right--a vital segment of the GOP that vaulted evangelist Pat Robertson to prominence in 1988 and has remained a major source of funding and philosophical influence ever since.

This year, a split within the Christian Right between pragmatists and purists has undermined Bauer’s attempt to be the single choice of religious conservatives. And on Wednesday, Bauer suffered a significant blow when his national campaign chairman quit and endorsed rival Steve Forbes, saying the multimillionaire publisher “is the only conservative who can win.”

The episode illustrates how Bauer’s religious roots may be a mixed blessing, simultaneously fueling and constraining his campaign.

Traditionally, the voter base for conservative religious candidates has been limited. Now, as Bauer gears up for next year’s rush of caucuses and primaries, he increasingly has turned to old-fashioned secular campaigning to broaden his appeal. He is playing up issues such as tax reform and a get-tough trade policy with China, while talking frequently of his blue-collar roots in a small Kentucky town and his eight years as an aide to former President Reagan.

In many speeches, God receives nary a mention. “I believe as the campaign continues and people hear me talking about a wide range of issues, I won’t be trapped in a box,” Bauer said.

But while Bauer remains a longshot in a Republican field dominated by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, he has so far exceeded expectations. His skilled stewardship of the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, and years of commentary on Christian radio have given him a strong following--and solid fund-raising base--among evangelicals.

In last month’s straw poll in Iowa, his surprising fourth-place showing, fueled by the state’s religious activists, helped leave in tatters the campaigns of commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, all of whom finished behind him.

Bauer’s main competition for the party’s right flank comes from Forbes, who is making a vigorous effort to court religious conservatives, and Bush, who seeks support from across the GOP spectrum by stressing his electability.

Bauer raised millions of dollars in his post with the Family Research Council and used it to prod the GOP to the right. That same fund-raising prowess has helped Bauer raise an impressive $5 million for his presidential bid, which will be supplemented with federal matching funds.

His contributors are concentrated in places such as Orange County, which the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found to be Bauer’s most lucrative area of support. So committed are Bauer’s backers to what he represents that some write their checks knowing full well that he does not have a prayer--so to speak--to be the next president.

“He will probably not become president because our society is not ready to hear his message,” said John Clement, a chemical distributor from Los Altos, Calif., who wrote Bauer a check for $1,000. “But if it gets people to think in terms of those views, maybe in 15 to 20 years, someone of his ilk might be electable.”

Bauer, however, contends that the time for his candidacy is now.

Playing up his humble beginnings in Newport, Ky., as the son of a janitor, Bauer, 53, has mocked Forbes for the publisher’s blueblood upbringing and for policies that Bauer says favor Wall Street more than Main Street. Bauer’s strategists hope to outflank Forbes in early caucuses in Alaska and Louisiana, setting the stage for a strong showing in the Iowa caucus in late January.

The sniping at Bush has been even more intense, with Bauer portraying him as a mealy-mouthed waffler who frequently sounds like a Gore clone. “‘I’m beginning to think that ‘W’ in the middle of his name stands for ‘wobbly,’ ” Bauer said recently.

Bauer took on Bush for failing to commit to filling federal judgeships only with those who oppose abortion rights. (So against abortion is Bauer that he recently told an interviewer that he unequivocally would urge his daughter, if she were raped, to keep the child.)

He knocked Bush for not vigorously condemning what Bauer sees as Hollywood’s preoccupation with sex and violence. And he tweaked the Texas governor for not answering bluntly the question of whether he has ever used cocaine.

Bauer, for his part, says he has never used illegal drugs. He can think of no other skeletons lurking in his closets either.

While Bauer has emerged as one of Bush’s most effective critics, his chances of winning the nomination remain remote. He has, after all, never before run for, much less won, an elective office. And even with a good showing in the Iowa caucus, his candidacy may quickly sink in New Hampshire. The state’s GOP voters have not proved as receptive to social conservatives as those in Iowa; a recent New Hampshire poll showed him in seventh place, with only 3% support.

Moreover, as Wednesday’s defection of national chairman Charles Jarvis demonstrates, many Christian conservatives are placing a greater emphasis these days on winning elections than they are on moral victories. “Empty victories are not real victories,” Jarvis said.

Still, Bauer appears well on his way to becoming a force within the GOP. If Bauer has a strong showing, any GOP nominee would ignore him at their own peril.

“He could have the leverage to tell the nominee, ‘Don’t you dare put a moderate on the ticket as vice president,’ ” said Michael Cromartie, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.

If he continues his strategy of relentlessly attacking Bush, however, he runs the risk of alienating party chieftains, especially if it seems he has damaged the GOP’s chances of capturing the White House.

Bauer says the party only benefits from a spirited discussion of the issues. And amid his hard-edged rhetoric, he mixes a droll sense of humor that pokes fun at his height (5 feet, 6 inches), his looks (less than matinee idol) and the travails of fatherhood (his teenage son just discovered girls and recently was nabbed watching “Baywatch”).

When it comes to what he believes in, however, the laughing stops. Sure, the Bauer Prayer Network--his campaign’s call for pro-Bauer prayers--may be a gimmick. But blending the political and the spiritual is also what he is all about.

“As far as I can tell, God hasn’t picked me or anyone else as his candidate,” Bauer said. “But I think asking people to pray for me to have wisdom to be able to touch people’s hearts or to get the country to think about some of the serious problems that are facing us . . . that can’t hurt me to have people doing that.”

Times staff writers Blair Golson and Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Sources of Strength in Orange County

Four Orange County communities are among the top ten locales for contributions to Republican Gary Bauer’s presidential campaign, based on an analysis of the donations by ZIP code.

92660 (Newport Beach): $17,475

92653 (Laguna Hills): $13,750

49464 (Zeeland, Mich.): $11,950

80906 (Colorado Springs, Colo.): $11,250

49423 (Holland, Mich.): $9,550

17601 (Lancaster, Pa.): $8,000

80907 (Colorado Springs, Co.): $7,750

49424 (Holland, Mich.): $7,750

92705 (Santa Ana): $7,650

94022 (Los Altos): $7,500

92651 (Laguna Beach): $7,500

Figures as of June 30, based on the mid-year report filed by the Bauer campaign with the Federal Election Commission.

Source: Center for Responsive Politics