Abortion rights backer would be risky VP choice for McCain

Published 10:34 pm Wednesday, August 27, 2008

SEDONA, Ariz. — With Sen. John McCain likely to announce his vice presidential choice Friday at a noon rally in Dayton, Ohio, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that 20 percent of the Republican’s supporters would be less likely to vote for him if he selects a running mate who supports abortion rights.

The survey shows that none of those believed to be on McCain’s short list held a significant advantage in influencing voters to back the senator from Arizona, but choosing a partner who favors abortion rights, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., or former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, would be a risky move for a candidate who has worked hard to rally conservatives to his side. In a recent interview, McCain told the conservative Weekly Standard that supporting abortion rights would not be an immediate disqualifier in choosing his running mate.

McCain, hunkered down at his compound near Sedona, is planning to campaign with his vice presidential pick in a three-day tour of fiercely contested battlegrounds in Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania. “Special Guest TBA” is how his campaign Web site advertises the Friday event at the Wright State University basketball arena.

Republicans may pass Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, on their way to next week’s GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. The Democrats have scheduled a bus trip through Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania at the same time.

McCain’s choice is closely held, with only a handful of advisers involved in the process. The senator dropped from public view after a fundraiser Tuesday night in San Diego, not even leaving his ranch Wednesday for his routine trip to Starbucks. He conducted phone interviews with local reporters in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The McCain camp’s silence did not stop speculation, with pundits and Web sites throughout the day mentioning rarely mentioned possible candidates — including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, for instance, who opposes an abortion ban but votes consistently for antiabortion legislation — and debating whether recent events helped or hurt the chances of McCain’s former rival Mitt Romney.

But the most controversial candidate remains Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, who was reelected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary and has infuriated his former party with his embrace of McCain, a longtime friend.

“You keep hearing that he really wants Lieberman,” said a Republican source who talks frequently with McCain’s advisers. The source added that McCain “can be stubborn.”

Another senior GOP adviser said picking Lieberman would be a way to say that McCain is a “transformational politician,” but it was unlikely that the benefit of that would offset the angst it would cause among party conservatives.

Republican antiabortion forces have made it known that the outrage that would be felt at next week’s party convention over a Lieberman selection would dwarf any disunity on display at the Democratic gathering in Denver. And while some conservative activists love to hear Lieberman accuse Obama of being inexperienced, they have drawn the line at the notion that the party’s vice presidential nominee could be someone who voted against the confirmations of conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

McCain is solidly opposed to abortion rights, and nearly six in 10 of his supporters (58 percent) polled said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.

In the telephone survey of 1,108 registered voters taken Aug. 19 to 22, which tested six possible vice presidential candidates, most said the choice of a running mate would not change their vote for president. That was especially true of lesser known candidates: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (86 percent); Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (83 percent); Sen. John Thune (S.D.) (81 percent) and Ridge (80 percent).

Of the six, Romney would generate the largest following — 20 percent say adding the former Massachusetts governor would make them more likely to support McCain. But nearly as many — 16 percent — said they would be less apt to vote GOP with Romney on the ticket.

Lieberman would appear to do the most damage. Overall, about one in five voters said choosing the former Democrat would make them less likely to back McCain, more than the 12 percent who would be more inclined to support the GOP nominee. And perhaps more tellingly, among those currently supporting McCain, 22 percent said they would be less apt to support the GOP nominee if he picks Lieberman. Just 9 percent of those backing Obama would be more interested in voting Republican with Lieberman as the No. 2.

Democrats are already gearing up to attack McCain’s vice presidential pick, no matter whom it might be. Progressive Accountability, a left-leaning advocacy group, has prepared a dossier on five contenders: Romney, Lieberman, Pawlenty, former Ohio congressman Rob Portman and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

Each of the opposition research documents uses the identical header, naming the McCain ally in question next to the phrase “McSame as Bush.”