Falwell funeral more personal than political
Nor can former Virginia former governor and longshot 2008 Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore.
Some Republican luminaries will attend next week’s funeral in Lynchburg the founder of the Moral Majority, but it’s not a must-attend political event.
Often there are political repercussions connected to who attends the funeral of a major national political figure. An arbitrary no-show by a Republican officeholder at the funeral of, say, President Reagan three years ago might have risked the ire of the popular president’s adoring fans.
Even though Falwell is an early and abiding hero to the religious right, there are no political consequences for skipping it, said Merle Black, political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta.
“This funeral will be very much more about the people who were influenced by him and his ministry,” Black said.
Veteran GOP strategist Christopher J. LaCivita, architect of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth initiative against Democrat John Kerry in 2004, found the notion that religious conservatives would punish no-shows offensive.
“To assume that Christian conservative voters would hold it against any candidate for public office because they did not attend a respected leader like Jerry Falwell’s funeral, that’s just another attempt to portray Christian values voters as shallow,” LaCivita said.
Even among Republicans without White House aims, there are commitments that can’t be broken. U.S. Sen. John W. Warner has critical votes in Washington on Tuesday. House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell can’t attend.
Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Bill Bolling, and Attorney General Bob McDonnell, both Republicans popular among Christian conservatives, will be there.
University of Virginia political science professor Larry J. Sabato said what’s more important to voters on the religious right is how candidates meshed with Falwell and other religious leaders and their statements Tuesday when they learned of his death.
“It’s helpful to be there but it probably doesn’t hurt if they’re not,” Sabato said.
Exerting political influence was Falwell’s most visible national role. But back home in Lynchburg ? a quiet Blue Ridge Mountain city of 68,000 ? his profile was much deeper, more varied and much more personal.
He was the founding pastor of the city’s largest and best-known church, Thomas Road Baptist Church. He was also the founder and president of Liberty University, a campus of about 9,600 students that is also among the region’s largest employers.