Loudly Catholic Santorum loses Ohio Catholics
Dan Gilgoff ("CNN," March 7, 2012)
USA - Rick Santorum, a conservative Catholic who is outspoken about
faith-based issues, lost Catholic voters by a wide margin in Ohio on Tuesday,
potentially a key factor that allowed Mitt Romney to squeak out the narrowest
of victories overall in the state.
According to CNN’s exit polls, Romney took 43% of Ohio Catholics on Super
Tuesday, compared to 31% for Rick Santorum, and Romney beat Santorum overall
by 38% to 37%.
Catholic voters accounted for a third of Ohio’s Republican electorate, the
largest share of Catholics in any Super Tuesday state.
“The margin of Romney's win among Ohio Catholics is surprising, given
Santorum's traditional Catholicism,” says John Green, a political science
professor at the University of Ohio. “Romney's margin among Ohio Catholics -
especially in the three largest metropolitan areas - may account for his close
win in Ohio.”
Green notes that Romney, a Mormon, has consistently won the Catholic vote
in this year’s Republican primaries. That pattern runs counter to
speculation that Catholics would focus more on hot-button issues at a time
when
Catholic bishops are battling the Obama White House over government-mandated
contraception coverage.
Romney has denounced the Obama administration’s contraception rule but
Santorum has gone further, making social issues a cornerstone of his campaign.
Last week, the former Pennsylvania senator said that John F. Kennedy’s 1960
speech in which the then-presidential candidate advocated an absolute
separation of church and state nearly made him throw up.
The Catholic vote is one of the largest swing blocs in the country, voting
for the winning presidential candidates from both parties in recent
elections. But the bloc is so diverse, including many Catholics who differ
with
church leaders on social issues and many who have drifted from the church,
that many religious and political experts dismiss any notion of a “Catholic
vote.”
In Ohio, the most contested of the 10 states to cast ballots on Tuesday,
Catholics represented one of GOP primary’s main constituencies. Another major
bloc, white evangelicals, comprised almost half of the Ohio vote, and
broke for Santorum over Romney by 47% to 30%.
One progressive Catholic group made political hay out of Santorum’s weak
showing among Ohio Catholics, emailing reporters a statement titled “Santorum
campaigns on divisive wedge issues, promptly loses Catholic vote.”
“Catholic voters care more about economic issues that affect their families
than they do about socially divisive wedge issues like contraception,”
said James Salt, executive director of Catholics United, in the statement.
“Mainstream Catholics want leaders who can address the moral challenges of
our day like income inequality, underwater mortgages and poverty,” Salt
continued, “not leaders who perpetuate a never-ending culture war that divides
our community.”
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