The Casey Model

Because Bob Casey is the featured candidate this week, it

seems only fitting to take a moment to discuss his approach to religious
outreach, which has been extremely effective and can serve as a model for our
Party.   As everyone knows, Casey is running against
Rick Santorum, the third-ranking Republican on the Hill and poster-boy for the
religious right.

It would be natural for a Democrat in his position to assume
that Santorum had the religious vote all sewed up and therefore focus attention
elsewhere or try to turn Santorum’s “faith” into a negative.  But Casey has chosen a different and much
more effective tack.  Rather than giving
up on the religious community and the heavily religious parts of the state — thereby
allowing Santorum to focus his efforts and money elsewhere as he runs to the
middle — Casey has instead chosen to actively engage the religious population in
Pennsylvania, even Santorum’s evangelical base.

Casey began his campaign by holding listening meeting with
pastors and lay leaders all over the state, but he has especially focused on
the evangelical and conservative areas in central Pennsylvania.  There were no press or press-releases tied to
these meetings and Casey didn’t make any pitches or ask for their support.  The purpose of the meetings was simply to let
the pastors know they were being listened to and to give Casey and opportunity
to hear what they cared about and talk through ideas in an open and uncharged
setting.  As a result, these meetings
were very positively received by the pastors.
They helped the campaign form relationships with faith communities in
very red parts of the Commonwealth.  They
also helped Casey better understand the real priorities of those communities
and how to communicate with them, lessons he has put to good use in recent
months.

Earlier this spring Casey accepted an invitation to speak on
a panel about global warming at an evangelical college.  It was a school and a region that many
Democrats would have considered out of reach, but by the end of the discussion,
the audience and panel members were thanking Casey and eviscerating
Santorum.  Based on that success, the
campaign has worked with churches throughout the Commonwealth to increase
awareness and dialogue around environmental stewardship.  I’m planning to write a couple blogs
specifically dedicated to “creation care” because it is an issue that holds
such promise for Democrats.  But for
Casey it is especially effective because Santorum has one of the worst environmental
voting records in the Senate.

Casey also actively sought equal time from a very
conservative pastors’ group that made its public debut by inviting Santorum to
speak at one of their training sessions.
Casey didn’t attack the group for violating its non-profit status,
thereby painting a target on his chest for accusations by the religious right
that he wanted to keep people of faith out of politics.  Instead, he simply asked for equal time and continued
to follow-up and meet with the group until they asked him to keynote one of
their meetings where he was graciously introduced and positively received.

On the message and communication end, Casey has dedicated an
entire page of his website to “faith and the common good,” and he created an
in-depth mailing/handout that provides his position on a number of
faith-related issues and biographical information about Casey and his faith
story (links to these documents can be found under his statement in this site’s
Action Center).  The campaign is planning
to run ads on Christian radio, and Casey is about to give a major address titled:
“Restoring America’s Moral Compass:
Leadership and the Common Good” at Catholic University.  In short, Casey has made it very clear that
he is not going to cede faith voters to Santorum or let the GOP define the “faith
and values” debate.

It is important to note that Casey is no firebrand speaker
with a testimony that will bring people to tears or a knowledge of scripture
gleaned from doing “sword drills” from the cradle.  In fact, he’ll often begin speeches to evangelical
audiences with a few self-effacing jokes about how their Biblical knowledge or
ability to speak eloquently about their personal faith far exceeds his
own.  Casey, after all, is a Catholic
from Scranton, PA who wasn’t raised to talk a lot about his
faith.  His family brought him up with
more of a Nike approach to their faith: don’t talk about it, just do it.

But he’s a politician, and so he is questioned about his
faith and does have to talk about it in certain settings.  In general, however, he has taken an approach
of doing more demonstrating (be it listening to conservative pastors, reaching
out to religious groups, or speaking about the importance of a government
dedicated to the common good that protects the least of these) than talking about
his personal faith.  And through it all, Casey
has always remained authentic.  He has
not tried to appear to be someone he is not, and his campaign has not simply copied
the Republican faith outreach model.

Ultimately, I believe that the approach Casey has taken will
be the true path to success for Democrats as we reach out to the faith
community.  We need to show respect for
people of faith; we need to be authentic; and we need to stand up for
what we
believe is right no matter what the polls tell us.  So far, Casey
has been doing just that.  And so far, Casey is leading in a race
against an incumbent who is slated to become the second most powerful
Republican in Congress.