RMC's Press Release on Specter Announcement

Republican Majority for Choice Issues Statement on Specter Switch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
703-739-8905
April 28, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC (April 28, 2009) - Today the Republican Majority for Choice's co-Chairs, Susan Bevan and Candy Straight, and Executive Director Kellie Ferguson issued the following statement on Senator Arlen Specter's announcement to switch parties:

"Senator Specter's decision to switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party after decades as a Republican leader in Congress delivers another blow to a hemorrhaging Republican Party that continues its march away from the mainstream.

Specter is joining the more than 240,000 former Pennsylvania Republican voters who are a microcosm of voters nationally who switched last year to the Democratic Party. The vast majority of these voters were pro-choice, fiscal conservatives who believed that the Party had become too monolithic and extreme in their agenda.

If anyone in the GOP is celebrating this day, they are completely misguided. If the Party continues to be so inhospitable to anyone who does not adhere completely to their strict dogma, then they better get used to being in the minority. Without mainstream candidates the GOP will have no ability to compete in huge pockets of the country.

This is a sad day for the GOP and we cannot waste one more minute debating 'what's next'. It's clear that we will either create an agenda that attracts voters or we will sink even further into the political abyss. The GOP can - and we believe will - regain its political power once it begins to listen to the Real Republican majority that is concerned about smaller government, fiscal responsibility, our national defense and not the social agenda that has hindered our strength as a Party."

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Republican Majority for Choice

www.gopchoice.org

703-739-8907