Coalition seeks to reframe GOP race

Leaders of a secretive coalition that includes some of the most influential social conservatives in the nation are interviewing presidential candidates in hopes of flexing political muscle and reframing the Republican primaries in 2008.

Over the past few months, members of the executive committee of the so-called Arlington Group have questioned several declared and potential White House hopefuls with the intention of settling on a single candidate, according to Arlington Group members and Republican operatives familiar with the discussions.

A nod from the conservative movement's biggest names to followers at the grass-roots level would give a major boost to candidates such as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, whose past moderate positions on social issues have hampered his attempts to court the right, or former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who lacks front-runner name recognition and fund-raising numbers.

"If they were to get behind me, it would be a huge surge for me," Huckabee said in an interview. "I wish I could tell you today that I'm the guy."

Leaders of the group have interviewed Huckabee, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, US Representative Duncan Hunter of California, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who hasn't entered the race but may later this year. It's not clear which other candidates have been or will be interviewed. The group has not yet questioned Romney, Senator John McCain of Arizona, or former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, according to those campaigns.

Because the Arlington Group is made up of many nonprofit organizations and ministries -- which, by law, cannot officially advocate for political candidates -- the coalition is not expected to explicitly endorse anyone. Instead, according to members of the group and two Republicans close to it, the conservative leaders hope to coalesce around one candidate that prominent members such as James Dobson, who heads Colorado-based Focus on the Family, could endorse individually. Dobson, for example, is free to say as a private citizen that he supports a certain candidate, a personal endorsement sure to influence many of his followers.

The group or its leaders might not even reach a consensus -- a similar effort in the 2000 race ended without agreement, and many conservatives have expressed frustration at the lack of a clear choice in the 2008 contest. But if they do, the political potential for that candidate would be significant. The Arlington Group encompasses roughly 70 grass-roots organizations around the country said to reach tens of millions of people collectively.

"It is our desire that all of us, in a united effort, could marshal our resources to the same end," said one member of the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity, because members agree d not to disclose the discussions publicly.

Leaders and members of the Arlington Group, which formed in mid-2003, were reluctant to discuss the coalition publicly -- most declined to comment or did not return calls, and the Arlington Group website was abruptly disabled earlier this month after the Globe began making inquiries.

But those who were willing to discuss it insisted that the group's leaders have been interviewing presidential candidates as individuals, not as representatives of the coalition or the organizations they head.

Shannon Royce, the Arlington Group's executive director, said in an e-mail that the group "does not, cannot, and will not be doing interviews of presidential candidates. As in previous presidential campaigns, some principals, acting in their private capacities, are having discussions with potential presidential candidates." She declined to comment further.

But the lines are blurry. In addition to the fact that members of the Arlington Group's executive committee are leading the interviews, Royce, according to e-mails obtained by the Globe, has coordinated candidate visits and sent the campaigns an issues questionnaire to fill out. The questionnaire asks candidates their views on, among other topics, a proposed federal same-sex marriage ban, judicial appointments, the budget, and publicly funded sex-education programs. In addition, candidate interviews have been held at the Washington headquarters of the Family Research Council, an influential Christian organization that hosts Arlington Group staff members and meetings.

Conservative activist Gary L. Bauer, who has served on the Arlington Group's executive committee and participated in candidate interviews, denied that the coalition itself is seeking to have any impact on the presidential election. The interviews are being conducted by people who might belong to the Arlington Group, he said, but those discussions have "no relationship" to the group's work, which he said is focused on issues such as same-sex marriage.

"What we do not do is sit around talking about candidates and how we can help somebody win or lose," said Bauer, who made a bid for president in 2000 and now heads the organization American Values, which promotes conservative principles on same-sex marriage, education, and other issues. The Arlington Group, Bauer said, has no intention of coming up with a consensus candidate.

Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council and also a member of the Arlington Group's executive committee, said it was Bauer's political action committee, Campaign for Working Families, that's coordinating the candidate interviews and renting space at the council's headquarters to hold them.

"While there may be a disproportionate number of the Arlington Group [members] involved in something else, it doesn't mean it's an Arlington Group event," Perkins said, describing the Arlington Group as merely a "community coffee shop for conservative organizations to come and share what they're doing with one another."

Since its inception, the group has blossomed into a broad and powerful coalition of grass-roots organizations, ministries, and conservative legal groups. (The group's meetings are held behind closed doors, and membership is by invitation only.) As it has grown, the group has exhibited its collective power on federal judicial appointments, "life" issues, and, especially, same-sex marriage.

In 2004, the group, named for the location of its first meeting in Virginia , helped drive ballot initiatives banning same-sex marriage in 13 states. Organizations represented in the Arlington Group contributed $2 million to the campaigns, according to a 2006 report by the Institute on Money in State Politics.

Arlington Group leaders have also pressed for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage; in 2005 the group threatened to withhold support for President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security if Bush didn't push harder for such an amendment. (A week later, a White House spokesman told reporters that Bush believed an amendment was "necessary.")

Whether the group's members can reach agreement to back the same presidential candidate will probably be a key indicator of whether conservative voters and activists around the country will line up primarily behind one campaign or go their separate ways.

"I think the Arlington Group is on a wait-and-see [basis] and I think most conservatives are that way," said Richard Viguerie, a long-time conservative activist and member of the group. "Nobody is ringing conservatives' bells."

A spokesman for Romney, Kevin Madden , said it was possible the former governor could meet with the group at a future date. "We're making every effort to meet as many scheduling requests as possible," he said. Romney has already met with many conservative leaders in recent months, spending nearly two hours, for example, with Dobson in Colorado last month.

Two candidates who could emerge as conservative favorites are Huckabee and Brownback, though neither has a perfect record on every issue important to the right. Some observers, however, question whether either can raise the money it takes to mount a serious campaign, and those close to the Arlington Group say its leaders, if they back a candidate at all, want to back a viable one. The first sense of the candidates' viability will come in the next couple weeks, when the 2008 campaigns release their first- quarter fund- raising figures.

Perkins said it was "reasonable to say you want a candidate that shows they can put together an organization and go the distance and win the race."

But another member of the Arlington Group said he hopes conservatives belonging to the group settle on a candidate who reflects their values, because fund-raising power would follow.

"If we do our job," the member said, "money is going to be a secondary factor."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.