Buchanan's Forces Plan To Rally In San Diego

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 30) -- Supporters of commentator Pat Buchanan, who waged a spirited but unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination, plan to rally in San Diego during the Republican convention in August.

One goal: To protect the strict anti-abortion language in the Republican platform, which some GOP leaders, including Govs. Pete Wilson of California, George Pataki of New York and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, would like to soften or remove.

But Buchanan's sister and campaign manager, Bay Buchanan, said she does not foresee a divisive intra-party fight over abortion, for practical reasons.

"Governors Pataki and Wilson are part of the Dole campaign....They must recognize, and I know the Dole people will, that any kind of fight on this issue is going to damage the Dole effort dramatically in the general election," Bay Buchanan said in an interview today on CNN's Inside Politics.

Buchanan's forces will accept no compromise language, she warned. "This is a core belief...This is something we're going to fight on. This is not something we will compromise; we will not allow any type of wavering or compromise whatsoever. We want the language to remain as is. We want the party to be a proud, pro-life party," she said.

But Ann Stone of Republicans For Choice, who also appeared on the show, said there could be a platform fight and noted that exit poll data show that even many of Buchanan's supporters are not adverse to having anti-abortion language removed from the platform.

"A lot of people in the party are just tired of the fight," Stone said. "They saw that the lesson of 1992 was when we fight, we lose, and the lesson of 1994 was when we aren't fighting, we win. And they want to win."

Candidate Buchanan has kept a low profile since the end of March, except for a brief trip to Missouri to thank supporters there. He plans a visit this week to Indiana, scene of a GOP primary next week.

The Buchanan campaign plans to sponsor activities for its supporters at the San Diego convention, set for Aug. 12-15.

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