When I heard that Ron Reagan would be on prime-time TV Tuesday, I figured on tuning in another Eukanuba Tournament of Champions Dog Show.
I was wrong.
The Republican icon’s son will appear live at the show of a different breed of animal – the Democratic National Convention. Reagan, an Independent who I’m told lives in Seattle, will address the opportunities and obstructions of research into stem cells – master cells that can become other kinds of tissue.
Like his mother, former first lady Nancy Reagan, he wants Congress to help expand the research that some say might eventually lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s, the disease that claimed his father’s life. This is a fiery issue in the world of science and medicine and, thanks in part to the Reagans, is causing a slow burn in political arenas.
A few of those embers floated into the state race for governor this week when Democratic candidate Attorney General Christine Gregoire proposed creating an Institute of Stem Cell Research.
She envisions the state becoming a player in the emerging enterprises that extract stem cells from embryos to study disease cures. Gregoire’s model is New Jersey, the first state to give fertility clinic patients the option of using or disposing of unused embryos following in-vitro fertilization.
This year, state lawmakers debated a bill endorsing stem-cell research. It passed one committee, then lapsed in the Democratic-controlled House Appropriations Committee. In 2003, a similar bill reached the Republican-controlled Rules Committee and died.
King County Executive Ron Sims, Gregoire’s Democratic rival, didn’t embrace her plan, but is a staunch supporter of embryonic stem cell research.
Republican candidate Dino Rossi hasn’t made his position known.
“He feels he needs to study this issue more,” said Mary Lane, his campaign coordinator. “He’s going to make his decision in his own time frame, not on Christine Gregoire’s campaign schedule.”
Gregoire is pressing him publicly, not because stem-cell research influences voters by itself, but because almost any debate on stem cells devolves into a debate on abortion. That issue can sway elections.
Abortion rights candidates most often win in this state. When a race is close, as the one for governor surely will be, women especially are likely to forgo party loyalty to defeat candidates perceived as threatening to a woman’s legal right.
Gregoire openly favors a woman’s right to choose abortion. Rossi is quietly against abortion. Gregoire wants to capitalize on that difference, and looks to this issue – and Rossi’s silence – as a means.
Foes of stem-cell research are primarily anti-abortionists who argue that stem-cell procedures amount to scientists using the body parts of murdered children.
For now, most voters do not know Rossi’s view on abortion, because he has secured it safely under the hood of his finely tuned campaign machine.
Gregoire is hoping the stem-cell issue will help pry it loose.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield’s column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 7 a.m. Monday on the “Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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