By Donald Zuhn --
On Saturday, the GOP kicked off the 2012 presidential election cycle with Iowa Republicans gathering in Ames, Iowa to participate in the Ames Straw Poll. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann picked up 4,823 votes (28.6%) of the 16,892 votes cast in the straw poll to edge out Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who received 4,671 votes (27.7%). Texas Gov. Rick Perry collected 718 write-in votes after announcing his candidacy in South Carolina on the day of the Ames Straw Poll, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney picked up 567 votes after deciding to skip the straw poll in June.
In an article published in The Boston Globe prior to the Ames Straw Poll, the positions of the Republican presidential candidates on embryonic stem (ES) cells was examined ("Most in GOP field would scale back stem cell funding"). The Globe reported that "[n]early all of the Republican presidential candidates would put the brakes on President Obama's efforts to broaden federal spending on embryonic stem cell research." In March 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13505, entitled "Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells," which reversed limits imposed by the Bush administration on taxpayer support of ES cell research (see "President Obama to Lift Stem Cell Limits on Monday" and "President Obama Reaffirms Faith in Science").
The Globe noted that most of the candidates responded to the newspaper's survey of their positions on federal funding of ES cell research "with vague statements and dodged questions about whether they would endorse Bush's position of allowing funding for research on a limited number of existing stem cell lines to continue." However, the article points out that the socially conservative Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List has suggested that Rep. Bachmann, Rep. Paul, former senator Rick Santorum, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (MI) would oppose further expansion of federal funding of ES cell research. (The SBA List also indicated that former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty would also oppose further expansion of federal funding of ES cell research, but after his third-place finish on Saturday, Mr. Pawlenty withdrew from the Republican presidential race on Sunday.) Mr. Romney told the Globe that he would not allow federal funding of ES cell research, but "would make an examination of the science and speak with experts in the field" before deciding whether to follow the Bush administration's example by permitting research to be conducted on existing ES cell lines.
According to a report in Salon, Gov. Perry (at left), who had not officially entered the race when the Globe article was published, would appear to side with the other Republican candidates, having declared that stem cell research has "turn[ed] the remains of unborn children into nothing more than raw material" ("Gov. Rick Perry underwent stem cell therapy"). While not inconsistent with Gov. Perry's position on ES cell research, the Salon article noted (with some surprise) that the Texas governor underwent an experimental spinal fusion procedure last month in which he was injected with adult stem cells to treat a back injury. As a result of the procedure, which the Perry campaign called a success, the Texas governor is a strong proponent of adult stem cell research ("Perry's Surgery Included Experimental Stem Cell Therapy").
Interestingly, in opposing ES cell research and federal funding of such research, the Republican presidential candidates side with a minority of Americans -- a Gallup 2011 poll indicated that 62% of Americans believe ES cell research is morally acceptable, and a Pew Research Center poll showed that 58% of Americans support federal funding of ES cell research.
I have to say regardless of how you feel about embryonic stem cell research, polls like the Gallup poll are pretty useless. I'll wager that over half of the respondents don't have a clue what embryonic stem cell research is or what the controversy about it is. Politically speaking that means most of them don't really care. Those that are aware of the issues and care about it are a much smaller percentage and so probably not that politically influential one way or the other.
Posted by: Jay | August 17, 2011 at 08:20 AM
Are we STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS? I HA TE MY PUBLIC OFFICIALS. DEAR GOD, MOVE ON TO THINGS THAT MATTER.
Posted by: 6 | August 17, 2011 at 12:32 PM