Catholic candidates, voters gain ground in Virginia
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
July 8, 2009
Half of the candidates seeking Virginia top political offices this year are Catholic, a situation once unthinkable for a heavily Protestant Southern state in which Catholics now make up a growing and increasingly independent voter base.
"The Catholic community in Virginia is becoming more and more influential and is having a greater and greater role in the political process," said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference.
Three of six candidates on the statewide ballot identify themselves as Catholic, including Bob McDonnell, the Republican gubernatorial nominee. The other two, Democrat Steve Shannon and Republican Ken Cuccinelli, are running for attorney general.
Democrats see opportunity in the voting trends of Virginia's at least 660,000 Catholics.
In the 2004 presidential race, they broke nearly 2-1 for George W. Bush over John Kerry, despite Kerry's Catholic faith, according to exit polls.
In the U.S. Senate race two years later, Catholics -- who made up 16 percent of the vote -- were evenly split between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb. Last year, Barack Obama handily won the Catholic presidential vote nationally over John McCain.
Republicans, and Cuccinelli especially, can rely on a network on conservative Catholics to provide one of their most solid bases. Democratic candidates, however, will seek to woo those votes from the GOP by enlisting the help of Gov. Tim Kaine on the campaign trail.
"Tim Kaine, a former missionary, confirmed to the public that Democrats aren't godless," said Doug Smith, director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Pubic Policy.
The issues that bring Virginia's Catholics to the polls center on "the dignity of human life and human rights" and cut across both parties, Caruso said. Catholic voters, he said, will focus on topics like abortion, stem cell research, the death penalty, social programs for low-income families and justice for immigrants.
William Luckey, a political science professor with Christendom College, said the high number of Catholics who voted Democratic "believe that socialistic policies are what the Gospel requires."
"Since they don't know economic theory, they don't realize [Democratic policy] has the opposite effect," he said. "It actually erodes the economy, so now there comes to be more poor."
