Political Science: How Stem Cells Became Hurdle For GOP Campaign — Issue Crosses Over Party Lines

WASHINGTON — Three years ago, President Bush used his first televised presidential address to put the emotional issue of embryonic stem-cell research behind him.

He unveiled a compromise: The federal government would, for the first time, provide funding for the research, but wouldn’t pay for work that required new embryos to be destroyed. Scientists and patients advocates, who wanted the funding spigot fully opened, grumbled but accepted the decision — as did abortion foes who wanted the work banned.

But as Republicans gather in New York this week for their convention, the stem-cell controversy has grown more divisive. A number of conservative Republican Party stalwarts, including Sens. Trent Lott and Orrin Hatch, have joined Nancy Reagan and party moderates in breaking with the president on the issue.

With polls on stem cells running strongly against the president, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry senses a big opening on the issue. He attacks the Bush policy at nearly every campaign stop, while his campaign recruits patients advocates to organize stem-cell rallies in the battleground states of Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota. The target: voters like Ron Mayhew, a Boise, Idaho, real-estate developer who backed Mr. Bush in 2000. Now Mr. Mayhew is planning to vote for Sen. Kerry because he believes the president is hindering research that could help his teenage son’s diabetes. “This is a deal breaker for me,” he says.

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