By Hilary White
WASHINGTON, September 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An umbrella group for US social conservatives called ValuesVoter.org was disappointed to learn that Republican Senator Fred Thompson would not be attending a debate scheduled for mid-September in Florida. Also declining to appear are Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Senator John McCain.
Thompson is a former federal prosecutor who served as Republican counsel on the Senate Watergate committee. He served eight years in the Senate from Tennessee. He is expected to announce his candidacy for president this Thursday on his website and will be airing his first campaign ad at the same time on Fox News.
Thompson is looked upon by many social conservatives, or so-called “values voters” in the US, as the hope of the Republican Party. In June a poll placed him, with 27 percent support, three points ahead of the runner-up, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had 24 percent support. The Rasmussen Report called Thompson “the most conservative of all GOP candidates”.
The event will be held September 17th at 6 pm at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and will be broadcast live on the satellite TV service, Sky Angel, as well as streamed over the Web at ValuesVoterDebate.com. Another date had been set for Democrat candidates, but they all declined.
The ValuesVoter.org event will include some of the US’s most senior conservative voices on the questioners’ panel: Paul Weyrich, founder and President of the Free Congress Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly, founder and President of Eagle Forum, Don Wildmon, founder and Chairman of the American Family Association, Judge Roy Moore, with the Foundation for Moral Law, Rick Scarborough, Vision America, and Mat Staver of Liberty Council.
Fred Thompson declared in June that the life issues were “the most important thing of all in this world.”
“In 1994 I made my first run for the US Senate and I was proud to receive the National Right to Life endorsement,” said Thompson. “I’ve been with you ever since, and you’ve been with me ever since.”
“On abortion related votes I’ve been 100 percent,” he added. However, Thompson will not be showing up for the ValuesVoter.org debate to respond to questions from leaders of some of America’s prominent social conservative organizations.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Second poll Finds that Thompson Still Holds Lead Over Giuliani
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jul/07070510.html
Fred Thompson Declares Pro-life Stance Before National Right to Life Committee
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07061903.html
Visit ValuesVoter.org
https://www.valuesvoter.org/