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boston globeNew concerns crack unity of religious right
Conservative campus shows divisions on candidates, Iraq
By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | November 18, 2007
LYNCHBURG, Va. - On Main Street of this Civil War-vintage city, known in recent years as the birthplace of the religious right, the only political sign bears the name of Ron Paul, the antiwar libertarian who is running for the Republican nomination.
At nearby Liberty University, the headquarters of the late founder of the Moral Majority, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, many students say the campus is divided between at least five Republican presidential candidates, including Paul, and some support for Democrats, as well.
With just weeks remaining until primary season, leaders and foot soldiers of the religious right have come to a surprising conclusion: Their bloc of voters, considered by many to be the largest single constitu ency in the Republican Party, is not going to break for any one candidate in 2008.
If religious conservatives split up their votes, the religious right would lose an opportunity to earn a significant debt from the eventual nominee, and no candidate would receive the kind of 11th-hour boost that many had been hoping for.
"It appears that at this point there is going to be a diversity of opinion," concluded Stephen Witham, associate professor at Liberty's Jesse Helms School of Government. "Some prefer one, some prefer others - and all for different reasons."
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