State Republicans who gathered to adopt an election-year platform came close this week, but it turns out they will have to try again.
The party’s State Central Committee met Tuesday to vote on a platform that focuses on jobs, state spending, health insurance, education, the environment and government accountability, but some of the language — and some that was missing — convinced a majority that the statement was not ready for prime time.
Among the missing was any reference to issues such as abortion and immigration, said Raymond T. McKay, a member of the platform committee that drew up the election-year statement.
Most glaring to some was a final paragraph that says the party, in “the long-standing tradition of New England Republicans,” respects “the right of all of our candidates to hold and express their own considered views on social issues.”
“If you take a look at the Moderate Party’s platform and you take a look at our platform, they’re pretty much one and the same,” said McKay, who made the motion to send the statement back for further review. “If we’re going to be a party and we’re going to differentiate ourselves, we should stand apart from the others and not be a Democratic-light, or something like that.”
The disagreement over family-values issues — which mirrors an ongoing debate within the National GOP — left party leaders unsure of which areas the final statement will cover.
“You have more conservative forces in the party [That's us!], and you have forces in the party which perceive a large percentage of the voting population are registered as independents,” [That's also us ... we believe there are a lot of conservatives who are registered as unaffiliated voters, because the Republican Party doesn't stand for anything, not because it isn't liberal enough] said Robert Manning, the platform committee chairman. “The sense of the platform committee is that that’s where the votes are, and it’s a mistake to assume that you can move right to win votes.” [The platform committee sent the draft platform to the floor with an 8 to 8 vote, with Mr. Manning breaking the tie]…
Read More: The Providence Journal
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