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Iowa Christian Alliance (ICA) president Steve Scheffler sent an email to supporters criticizing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain for skipping last month's candidate forum sponsored by ICA and Iowans for Tax Relief, First Read reported today.
Iowa Independent has obtained a copy of the email, which notes:
While the other GOP candidates have accepted our invitations and have shown eager participation, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain have each continued to avoid our constituency. This is disappointing to us at ICA in that these candidates seem to have the most to explain regarding their stances on important conservative issues.
Scheffler goes on to criticize Giuliani's and McCain's social conservative credentials, including Giuliani's support for abortion rights and "special rights for homosexuals" and McCain's support for embryonic stem cell research and his opposition to "a national marriage amendment which would take the activism out of activist judges."
Read the whole email below the fold.
Giuliani & McCain: Some Explaining to Do
We at the Iowa Christian Alliance have considered it our privilege and distinct responsibility to give each candidate running for president the opportunity to present their case before conservative Christian voters in Iowa. In late June we joined together with Iowans for Tax Relief and hosted a presidential forum where the candidates had an audience of nearly 1,000 Iowa conservatives. We also continue to host house parties across Iowa which offer candidates a free venue to speak with local conservative activists. While the other GOP candidates have accepted our invitations and have shown eager participation, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain have each continued to avoid our constituency. This is disappointing to us at ICA in that these candidates seem to have the most to explain regarding their stances on important conservative issues. While Rudy Giuliani admittedly is pro-choice and favors special rights for homosexuals he recently stated while in Iowa that he would only appoint strict-constructionist judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who are in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito. However, most of Giuliani’s judicial appointments during his eight years as mayor of New York were hardly in the mold of Roberts and Alito. A Politico review of the 75 judges Giuliani appointed to three of New York State’s lower courts found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 8 to 1. One of these was even an officer of the International Association of Gay Judges! Why won’t he come before Iowa conservatives and explain himself? Sen. John McCain has also left many Iowa Christian voters confused regarding his stances on various issues such as stem cell research, traditional marriage, and illegal immigration. While we are thankful for the pro-life votes he has cast in the past we cannot understand why he would support the use of federal tax dollars to advance the efforts of embryonic stem cell research. Though he says he supports traditional marriage, Christians do not understand why Sen. McCain opposes a national marriage amendment which would take the activism out of activist judges. Regarding the most hot button issue on the campaign trail thus far, illegal immigration, Sen. McCain has passed up opportunity after opportunity to explain before our constituency why he favors amnesty for people who have blatantly broken U.S. immigration laws? Again, why won’t Sen. McCain come before Iowa conservatives and present his case? The Iowa Christian Alliance will continue to do its part to hold the feet of presidential candidates to the fire. We have given them the opportunity to win our support but, as it appears, they have to want it to win it. Steve Scheffler President, Iowa Christian Alliance
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