Bidness as usual, friends. My hair's barely on fire over this one.
GOP Requests Church Directories.
North Carolina Republicans know where to find their friends, and aren’t afraid to give them a call. That is, if they can get the correct phone numbers. Over the protests of local national religious leaders, the North Carolina Republican party called on its members to submit their church directories to the party, stating that "people who regularly attend church usually vote Republican when they vote."
Really? Not so sure about that.
Bill Peaslee, the party's chief of staff, claimed he was simply targeting his demographic base. "The Republican Party believes that people shouldn't leave their moral and spiritual beliefs at the door of the polling place," the chief of staff said. "We're just appealing to one of our constituencies, just as the Democrat Party does. ... The Democrats may feel it's more profitable to go and do voter registration drives at a homosexual convention. We feel more comfortable going to churches."
Oh, haha! "We don't know how long the Democrats have been beating their wives, but that's no matter. We choirboys are too busy helping little old ladies cross the street to notice anyway. (Those poor, poor wives.)"
According to the Internal Revenue Service, a church’s tax exempt status may be revoked if it engages in "any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." In this case, local North Carolina clergy have called the practice of soliciting directories unethical, especially if it could potentially call the leanings of the church into question.
Two words: Re. Voke.






Okay, when I worked on the Richardson campaign in NM, one of the things I did was type in all the names from the Jewish synagogue directory so that we could send them a letter asking for money.
Nothing new here. Move on.
Posted by: KathyF | Thursday, 23 February 2006 at 06:21 AM
Gosh, somehow sounds a lot less nefarious when you say it, KathyF!
I just take umbrage (not that I go to church, mind you) that churchgoers are Repugnicans. They need to be soundly disabused of that notion, and I hope the next election does just that. My Christian friends are beyond fed up.
Posted by: ae | Thursday, 23 February 2006 at 11:49 PM