Georgia Right To Life Endorsing Huckabee
(11/30/07) Parting company with National Right To Life, which has
endorsed Fred Thompson, Georgia Right To Life is giving its endorsement
to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the organization announced
Friday.
The big issue for the Georgia group: Huckabee’s support of
the proposed Human Life Amendment in Georgia, also known as the
Paramount Right to Life Amendment.
“We appreciate and respect the pro-life positions of all
pro-life candidates,” the Georgia group said in its statement.
“We commend Rep. Duncan Hunter, Dr. Alan Keyes and Rep. Tom
Tancredo for their strong pro-life positions, but find that Gov.
Mike Huckabee is the only candidate which qualified under Georgia
Right To Life PAC guidelines.
“We examined three factors in our decision to endorse Gov.
Mike Huckabee: the positions of the candidates on the life issues,
their records on the life issues and their ability to win.”
The group said Huckabee responded with this statement to its inquiry
about life issues: “In keeping with my consistent support
for life, I believe in the ‘one exception’ clause for
the life of the mother and I support the Georgia Personhood Amendment.
I also support, and have consistently done so, the Human Life Amendment
to the United States Constitution.”
The Georgia legislation is HR
536, introduced late last session but still available for action
in 2008. It is a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds votes
in both chambers. Some Republican leaders are anxious to keep it
bottled up, seeing no way it can attract the Democratic votes that
would be needed to pass it and fearing that it could only produce
“scorecard” votes to be used in the primary campaigns.
The Georgia group said it normally would pass along the national
endorsement to its members but was grateful that national leaders
allowed individual state organizations to make their own choices.
“Passing a Personhood amendment here in Georgia is our key
issue ... Support of a candidate who ushered a similar amendment
through his own state speaks volumes to us,” said Bryan Lash,
director of the Georgia group’s PAC.
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