Declaring that his campaign strategy is dependent on controversy, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes told the state’s top GOP donors at a recent closed-door meeting that he plans to make “inflammatory” comments “every day, every week” until the election, according to several sources at the session.
The sources said Keyes explained that his campaign has been unfolding according to plan and likened it to a war in which lighting the “match” of controversy was needed to ignite grass-roots voters.
“This is a war we’re in,” one source recounted Keyes as saying. “The way you win wars is that you start fires that will consume the enemy.”
Keyes’ comments came during a 40-minute address to about 20 leading Republican fundraisers and donors Thursday at the posh Chicago Club. The sources asked not to be identified to prevent additional pre-election controversy within an already divided GOP.
At the session, Keyes denied that he has engaged in name-calling in his campaign, but he likened Democratic opponent Barack Obama to a “terrorist” because Obama, a state senator, voted against a legislative proposal pushed by abortion foes.
Mounting a non-traditional campaign based heavily on theologically based moral teachings, Keyes predicted he could lock up one-quarter of the black vote by stressing his belief that Jesus would not vote for Obama based on the Democrat’s support for abortion rights, the sources said.
Keyes campaign officials had little to say about the remarks attributed to their candidate. William Pascoe, the campaign manager, said Keyes spoke to the group in private, and what he said should remain private.
Pascoe, however, denied that Keyes had ever likened Obama to a terrorist, stressing that what the Republican has said in the past is that he believes abortion and terrorism share a common root–a disregard for life.
“Someone wasn’t listening closely, because Alan didn’t call Barack Obama a terrorist,” Pascoe said. “Perhaps he hadn’t had enough morning coffee, and the metaphor went over his head.”
The remarks attributed to Keyes indicate there may be no end to a series of controversial statements he has made since members of the Republican State Central Committee tapped him in early August to replace Jack Ryan as the GOP Senate candidate on the Nov. 2 ballot.
With Keyes trailing far behind Obama in cash and in public opinion polls, the Republican contender’s strategy indicates he will continue to seek free media attention fed off controversy. The game plan belies the belief of some conservatives who have contended Keyes, a former talk show host from Maryland, has been maneuvered by the media into making controversial remarks.
Some Republicans, including conservatives who initially applauded Keyes’ candidacy, have tired quickly of the candidate’s remarks.
Although some conservative Republicans said they tapped Keyes to help GOP candidates down the ballot, other Republicans have moved to distance themselves from the Senate candidate.
Keyes has proposed repealing the direct public election of senators and lifting federal taxes on a generation of African-Americans as a form of slavery reparations. He has said that Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter is participating in “selfish hedonism” because she is a lesbian, and he has accused Obama of holding a “slaveholder’s position” by supporting abortion rights.
