Bush on selective campaign tour

SELLERSBURG, Ind. – At his first campaign rally this election season, President Bush on Saturday galvanized supporters in a packed high school gym by pledging to oppose gay marriage, a theme Republican candidates have revived in the wake of a New Jersey court ruling in favor of gay couples.

“Activist judges try to define America by court order,” Bush told the crowd of 4,000 at Silver Creek High School, flanked by local Rep. Mike Sodrel, R-Ind., who is running for re-election. “Just this week in New Jersey, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe marriage is between a man and a woman.”

At that, the raucous crowd went wild, shouting “USA,” stomping their feet and shaking dozens of red, white and blue pompoms.

The New Jersey Supreme Court last week ruled that gay and lesbian couples in that state should have all the rights and benefits of marriage, leaving it up to legislators to decide whether to call such partnerships marriages or civil unions. Gay marriage was a motivating issue for social conservatives in the 2004 election, but has been overshadowed in this year’s campaign by the war in Iraq.

Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage will be on the ballot in eight states this November, including South Carolina, which Bush visited late Saturday to greet troops and attend a campaign fundraiser outside Charleston.

Bush has appeared at private fundraisers for individual candidates but now is launching a string of public rallies during this last week leading up to the midterm elections, speaking out on tax cuts, national security and gay marriage while playing to his base of conservative Republican voters in such strongholds as Sellersburg, Statesboro, Ga., and Sugar Land, Texas.

With Republican control of Congress increasingly in play, the president’s visits and tone could determine the fate of a handful of close races.

Beleaguered Republican candidates have distanced themselves from the president in recent debates, television ads and closed fundraisers as his approval rating remained below 40 percent this month. It has become increasingly difficult for the party to take advantage of the office of the president, party strategists say.

Democrats in Maryland, Missouri and Pennsylvania have launched attack ads that remind voters of their opponents’ support for Bush.

The campaign landscape has changed dramatically since the midterm elections of 2002, when Bush’s approval rating was 64 percent. Then, Bush targeted battleground districts for massive, boisterous rallies.

But he has been more low-key this campaign season. At a Thursday fundraising rally that brought in $700,000 for the Senate campaign of Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff Mike Bouchard, a catering hall half the size of a high school gymnasium was more than half empty.

Bush is slated to focus on red states during the coming week in the hopes of drawing crowds and boosting beleaguered Republican House campaigns in states he won by large margins in 2004.

“That’s where he’s more useful,” said Charlie Black, a Republican strategist close to presidential adviser Karl Rove.