This article first appeared online at The Hill on October 7, 2011.
Socially conservative groups release presidential scorecard
By Cameron Joseph
The anti-abortion-rights group Susan B. Anthony List and anti-same-sex marriage group National Organization for Marriage released their presidential campaign scorecards Friday morning ahead of the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit.
All the GOP presidential candidates — with the exception of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman — are scheduled to appear at the event in Washington, D.C., on either Friday and Saturday.
All of the candidates except Herman Cain and Mitt Romney signed the SBA List’s pro-life pledge, while all of the candidates besides Cain, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul signed NOM’s pledge to defend traditional marriage.
The candidates with unblemished records on both issues, according to the groups, are Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann, the three candidates who, along with Cain, are most seriously vying for the support of social conservatives.
NOM’s president said he believes his group’s issue will play a large role in the campaign.
“Given the fact that all of the main presidential candidates have signed our marriage pledge, which is a very strong pledge, clearly this election 2012, social issues are going to be very important,” he told The Hill on the eve of the vote’s release. “There’s been an attempt to downplay them in much of the media.”
Perry has strugggled somewhat with that group since his campaign launched because of mandate as governor of Texas that teenage girls get a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease known to cause cervical cancer. He needs to have a strong performance Friday at the summit in order to woo some of the movement’s leaders towards his campaign.
Download the scorecards here.
