McCain, Romney Vying for Support Of Conservatives

In endorsing McCain, Popma said she had her own checklist that he satisfied: The candidate had to be against abortion, in favor of defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and committed to appointing conservative judges to the federal bench. "This man is a social conservative," she said, "and he is the leading social conservative in the race who is consistent."

But James Dobson, founder of the Christian broadcasting powerhouse Focus on the Family, is not convinced. He told a Dallas radio station last month he prays that evangelicals will not "get stuck with" McCain as the Republican nominee. "Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," Dobson said.

Romney faces a dual challenge in wooing social conservatives. First, he is Mormon -- a religion many evangelical voters view skeptically. Second, during his campaigns for the Senate in 1994 and for governor in 2002, he expressed support for abortion rights and gay rights, positions he has reversed since it became clear he would pursue the presidency in 2008.

According to several attendees of Romney's luncheon last fall, his Mormonism was not a major problem for the evangelicals in his den. What the assembled evangelicals really wanted to know, and what they mostly focused on, was whether Romney's recent stance against abortion is sincere, said Jay Sekulow, director of the American Center for Law and Justice, which frequently represents conservative Christians in church-state cases.

Romney told them he changed his mind about abortion during the debate over embryonic stem cell research, and he recounted a discussion with stem cell experts from Harvard in which he was offended by the casual, clinical way in which they spoke about the destruction of fetuses.

"He said it just hit him, suddenly and powerfully, that we are dealing with life," said Sekulow, who decided at the lunch to back Romney's campaign. "Some say this is flip-flopping. It's not. He just flipped. . . . I think it's from the heart."

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a Texas-based Baptist preacher, is more skeptical. Scarborough, who runs the conservative advocacy group Vision America, was invited to the luncheon at Romney's house but used a scheduling conflict as an excuse not to attend. "I'm not prepared to get too terribly close right now, because I want to wait and see what the nature of Mitt Romney's conversion to social conservative issues is," Scarborough said.

In light of that skepticism, the Huckabee and Brownback campaigns hope they can overcome the perception that they cannot win, arguing that "we're viable if you make us viable," according to Land, the Southern Baptist leader.

Amid the near-constant pitches for support by the aspiring presidential candidates, some social conservatives are urging peers to refrain from any choice.

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance, said he has been approached by several campaigns but has chosen to stay out of the endorsement game for now.

"Anytime you side with a candidate and work for them, you alienate people and you are not able to talk about the issues as much as you would like," Scheffler said.