RNC Mulls Litmus Test for 2010 Candidates

A group of RNC members is circulating a conservative purity test that they say should be used to determine which candidates the committee should endorse and fund. Titled the “Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates,” the email outlines 10 points of Republican orthodoxy, and proposes that only candidates who agree with at least eight of them should get funding. They include:

1. For smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits, and lower taxes (opposing the “stimulus”)
2. For market-based health care reform (opposing the other kind)
3. Against cap-and-trade legislation
4. Against card check union formation
5. Against amnesty for illegal immigrants
6. For military-recommended troop increases in Iraq and Afghanistan
7. For containment of Iran and North Korea
8. For retention of the Defense of Marriage Act
9. Against abortion and health-care rationing
10. Against gun control

The resolution is an effort at “reclaiming the Republican Party’s conservative bona fides,” says Committeeman James Bopp, who authored the resolution. “We are open to diverse views. But you have to agree with us most of the time.” (More Republican National Committee stories.)