This week attention is returning to how Rudy Giuliani's positions on social issues will be received among Christian conservatives in his party and leaders in his church.
Tomorrow at Regent University, Giuliani will try to convince Christian conservatives that his "bona fides on leadership and fiscal discipline should trump his views on social issues like abortion," reports the New York Sun's Russell Berman. Giuliani was originally scheduled to address the university on April 17, but canceled because of the Virginia Tech massacre. In the intervening three months, Giuliani has worked to clarify his stance on abortion, and although he's "stopped getting questioned on abortion at every campaign appearance, his newly sharpened approach has not won over staunch foes of the practice."
The New York Times' Laurie Goodstein reports that Catholic church leaders are frustrated by Catholic politicians like Giuliani who "argue that while they are personally opposed to abortion, they do not want to impose their beliefs on others." Recently two bishops have directly spoken out against Giuliani's abortion position while others have said they wouldn't criticize Giuliani by name but wouldn't hesitate to define his stance as contrary to Catholic teaching.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post's Dan Balz reports that Mitt Romney's standing in early primary state polls has "risen dramatically" after four months and $4 million in advertising. In early 2007, Romney advisers decided they couldn't challenge Giuliani or John McCain in national polls until later this year, but needed high standing in early states to be seen as a top-tier candidate. That strategy involved an "intensive organizational focus on Iowa and New Hampshire, a potentially risky decision to launch an early advertising campaign, and the aggressive pursuit of any opportunity to showcase Romney against his rivals in straw polls, candidate forums, conservative gatherings, televised debates and fundraising." Big fundraising numbers were also key: in a single January day Romney raised $6.5 million and during the first quarter grossed $21 million.
This weekend Romney raised $200,000 during a swing through Utah. At the same time, the Boston Globe began a seven-part series on the "Making of Mitt Romney," part two of which was published today.
On the Democratic side, campaign funds are also garnering attention but for a different reason. The Chicago Sun-Times' Chris Fusco, Dave McKinney and Lynn Sweet report Myron Cherry, a lawyer referenced in the corruption case of Tony Rezko, is hosting a fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton tonight in Chicago. The lawyer hasn't been charged in the case and himself says his role "if any" would be as a witness.
Cherry represented a firm currently under a sexual-harassment lawsuit whose executives and associates had given $129,400 to Clinton's Senate campaign, which Clinton has kept. Other politicians, including the governors of Illinois and Wisconsin, have discarded donations from the firm. The firm denies the sexual harassment allegations. Money from Cherry and another man referenced in the Rezko case will be returned by the Barack Obama campaign, totaling $37,000 in returned donations from Rezko and others.
Meanwhile, John Edwards defended the use of his non-profit anti-poverty center to take trips for an early presidential campaign as "completely legal." When asked if Edwards would disclose donors to the non-profit, which is not already required by law, he said, "I will do whatever the law provides. That's what I do on all these things."
The Democratic candidates and will address 1,000 Hispanic elected officials and community leaders in Florida this week, but no Republicans will attend -- a fact Democrats are using to make the GOP look like it's snubbing Hispanics, reports the Tampa Tribune's William March. Republicans counter that the event is not friendly territory because, if for no other reason, most Hispanic officials outside of Florida are Democrats.
Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.
