Evangelical Groups Plan Aggressive Drive for Nominee

"Employing essentially the same game plan they used to win referendums against same-sex marriage in 11 states last November, evangelical Christian groups said they plan to run a multimillion-dollar church-centered campaign to rouse support for a thoroughly conservative successor to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

"Conservative religious leaders said the campaign will target 20,000 pastors and congregations using Christian talk radio, satellite television broadcasts, direct-mail advertising and aggressive grass-roots organizing.

"'This is the moment that social conservatives have been awaiting for more than a decade—a real chance to change the philosophical balance of the Supreme Court' and reverse the direction of its rulings on abortion, school prayer, sodomy and religious displays on public property, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

"A year ago, Perkins predicted that petition drives for state constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage would have an enduring political impact because they would forge local Christian activists across the nation into 'hard-wired' networks with names, addresses and telephone numbers of supporters.

"That is exactly what happened, he said in an interview Saturday." ...