c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Christian Coalition entered a new phase Wednesday (June 11) with the naming of a management team with strong conservative Republican credentials to replace outgoing president and founder Pat Robertson and its dynamic executive director Ralph Reed.

Donald Hodel, 62, former Reagan administration interior and energy secretary, was named to succeed Robertson as president. Robertson, a Christian broadcaster, will become the chairman of the organization’s four-person board of directors. He started the coalition eight years ago after his unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Randy Tate, 31, a former one-term, Republican congressman from Washington state, will replace Reed as executive director. Reed’s organizational skills are largely credited with turning the coalition into the religious right’s most effective and visible organization, with a nearly $30 million annual budget. Reed resigned to become an independent political consultant.

Robertson said Hodel will be responsible for the”day-to-day management and strategic direction”of the coalition and that Tate will assist Hodel and concentrate on grassroots organizing.

Robertson, speaking at a packed news conference in the Capitol, said both Hodel and Tate would speak for the coalition”as one voice,”splitting the high-profile public relations role that the boyish-looking Reed handled so effectively.

Robertson, who juggled his Christian Coalition duties with his broadcast and other interests, said expanding the organization’s management team to two full-time managers would better serve the coalition’s future growth.”Ralph was actually doing the work of three or four people, even ten,”said Robertson.

Hodel and Tate both indicated there would be no immediate changes in Christian Coalition tactics or policies, which have included backing school vouchers, tax relief, anti-abortion measures, balancing the federal budget and downsizing the federal government.

Hodel said the coalition would continue to reach out to African-Americans and Latinos, Roman Catholics and Jews to grow beyond its core constituency of conservative, evangelical Protestant Christians.

Tate served in the Washington state House of Representatives prior to his 1994 election to Congress, where he championed a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning and repeal of the federal prohibition against owning assault weapons. He emphasized the coalition’s skeptical approach toward government and its favorable disposition toward grassroots and religious solutions.”Having had the privilege of serving in Congress,”said Tate, a Robertson delegate to the 1988 GOP presidential nominating convention,”I am convinced now more than ever that the real answers to America’s problems are not found in this city (Washington) or this building (the Capitol), but in the homes, neighborhoods, churches and synagogues of our nation.” Longtime observers of the conservative political scene said the new appointments appeared to move the Christian Coalition closer to the Republican Party mainstream and away from the more ideological wing of the religious right _ even though both Hodel and Tate are self-identified evangelical Christians.

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said Hodel’s appointment in particular means the pragmatic political course championed by Reed will probably be even more evident in future Christian Coalition actions.

Hodel’s appointment, noted Green, distances Robertson from the coalition,”a plus for the organization as it attempts to reach out, because of Robertson’s penchant for fringe, theological thinking that has conjured up grand liberal conspiracies and apocalyptic visions.” William Martin, a Rice University professor and author of”With God On Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America,”agreed that political pragmatism appeared to have won out over ideology with the appointments of Hodel and Tate.

But he cautioned that both men’s close ties to the Republic Party could cause the coalition more problems with the Federal Election Commission.”It makes sense for the coalition to become more strongly aligned with the Republican Party,”said Martin.”That’s where its legislative clout lies. But given the coalition’s tax status, it’s a double-edged sword.” The FEC has already charged the coalition with using corporate funds to fund Republican candidates, as well as otherwise violating the organization’s non-partisan tax status. The coalition and the FEC are still wrangling over the charges.

At the news conference, Hodel _ who has been living in Colorado, serving on corporate boards and working in energy and natural resources management since leaving government in 1989 _ noted that he first came to Washington as part of the Republican”Reagan Revolution.” He said leading the Christian Coalition would allow him to”(keep) alive the flame that is Ronald Reagan’s legacy.”After the news conference, Hodel and Tate began making the rounds of Republican congressional leaders, stopping first at the office of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of American United for Separation of Church and State and a longtime liberal critic of the coalition, said Hodel’s comment about the Reagan legacy”constituted the clearest statement yet that the Christian Coalition is just a Republican front group.” Robertson dismissed the notion.”We’re absolutely not a Republican organization,”he said.”We’re here for the nation. We have in our constituency people of all walks of life.” Reed, who announced in April that he would be leaving the Christian Coalition, said Wednesday he would probably stay on through late July to assist through a transition period. Hodel and Tate begin their duties Monday (June 16).

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