Sorenson Pro-choice; CDA Press Attacks IVA

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Bryan Fischer, Executive Director

MORE TOMORROW ON SJM119

The House State Affairs Committee should be holding a hearing early next week on SJM119, our memorial in support of the Constitution Restoration Act. I will have more information for you tomorrow, at which point I will ask you to contact the members of this committee and urge them to support this bill. I’ll give you a link that will enable to you contact all members of this committee with a single email.

As you remember, it apparently was only under pressure from citizens that the Speaker took this bill out of his desk and sent it on to committee. The Speaker, under House rules, could have sent the bill straight to the floor. The fact that he chose instead to send it to committee first may indicate that he thinks he may be able to kill this bill in committee. More tomorrow.

SHEILA SORENSON HONORED AT PRO-CHOICE FUND-RAISER

Sheila Sorenson served as a moderate/liberal Republican for a number of years in the Idaho senate. Now that she is running for Congress in the First District, she has been undergoing an extreme makeover, and seeking to present herself to voters as a pro-family, pro-life conservative.

This all by itself is significant, because it is a concession on her part that pro-family, pro-life values are in fact the mainstream values of most Idahoans, and she knows she must appeal to these voters if she is to win the Republican primary in May.

However, Ms. Sorenson’s voting record in the Idaho senate was unabashedly to the left of most citizens in the 1^st district. She voted against marriage amendments each time she had opportunity, and single-handedly spiked the marriage amendment in the Senate two years ago.

She voted against virtually every pro-life bill that came before her during her tenure. Her voting record is virtually the opposite of the other experienced legislators in the race, Rep. Bill Sali, who has an unblemished pro-family, pro-life voting record and was the chief sponsor of any number of pro-life bills, and state senator Skip Brandt. Her views on abortion and marriage also contrast with other leading candidates in that race, such as Norm Semanko.

Sorenson attends pro-abortion soiree, fund-raiser

However, it seems that Ms. Sorenson has shown her true colors by attending a pro-abortion event earlier this week in New York City. The Women's Campaign Fund held a fundraiser Monday night, hosted by liberal talk show host Al Franken, to raise money for its foundation and its political action committee.

The fund offers financial help to women candidates of both political parties who support abortion rights. Ms. Sorenson was in attendance, and her pictured appeared prominently in at least one press account of the event.

According to the Idaho Statesman, Ms. Sorenson was one of the “honorees” at this event, attended by such left-leaning notables as Sen. John and Teresa Heinz Kerry, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, Martha Stewart, New Jersey Gov. John Corzine, Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons and others.

According to the Statesman’s account, “The group works to elect pro-choice women of both parties, and Sorensen often fought restrictions on abortion while she was in the Legislature.”

Idaho Statesman: Campaign notes

IDAHO VALUES ALLIANCE ATTACKED BY CDA PRESS

The Idaho Values Alliance had the dubious distinction Tuesday of being targeted on the same day by the Lewiston Morning Tribune (about which I wrote yesterday) and the Coeur d’Alene Press. The CDA Press editorial, by Sholeh Patrick, took us to task for raising questions about Lake City High School’s sanctioning of a student club whose purpose is to promote the normalization of homosexual behavior.

Our questions were in connection with a bond levy that went before voters on Tuesday. The bond levy failed, fueled primarily by local concerns over rapidly escalating property taxes, but also perhaps due to concerns from school district patrons about the kind of signals the district is sending to their children about homosexual behavior.

Ms. Patrick argues in her column that Lake City is required by federal law to sanction the Gay-Straight Alliance club on campus. But this is simply not true.

The Lubbock Independent School District disallowed GSAs on grounds that the district had a compelling interest in protecting the well-being of their students by prohibiting student clubs that promote unhealthy behaviors. The district’s decision was upheld by a federal judge, which demonstrates that the Coeur d’Alene school district has the legal authority to ban the GSA club if it has the political will to do so.

Perhaps the CDA School District will want to revisit its policies on clubs that promote risky sexual behavior before floating another bond levy.

Sholeh Patrick: Don't make schools suffer over federal guidelines

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