Hillarysworld

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After Brown’s Win, G.O.P. Officials Weigh ‘Purity’ Test

HONOLULU – One of the top items of business for the Republican National Committee, as it gathers amid lagoons and pools at an oceanfront resort in the heart of this city this week, is to pass a so-called “purity” resolution being put forth by some of its more conservative members.

The resolution, named after former President Ronald Reagan, would require that Republican candidates agree on at least eight listed conservative positions – like gun control, same-sex marriage and abortion financing – or face a cut-off of party money and support.

The move has stirred opposition from some moderate Republicans, and some officials in the Republican National Committee, concerned that it would have the effect of shrinking the Republican tent at the very moment when Democratic stumbles appear to be creating an opening for the party.

And here is one question that is already percolating among Republicans as they move to debate the resolution: Would Scott Brown – the Republican from Massachusetts who just captured the Senate seat of Edward M. Kennedy, and someone who is a hero these days in the party – have passed the test?

If the resolution had been in place, would the national committee have been barred from doing anything to help Mr. Brown in his campaign against Martha Coakley, the Democratic attorney general?

The argument is clearly worrying proponents of the so-called purity resolution. James Bopp Jr., the conservative Republican Party leader who introduced the motion, sent an e-mail to committee members saying that Mr. Brown would pass the “Reagan test,” and is an affirmation of his argument that a conservative candidate can win election in competitive states (or in the case of Massachusetts, Democratic states).

“We have argued that what the R.N.C. needs to do is be faithful to our conservative principles to be successful, rather than ‘moderate’ or abandon those principles, and that principled conservatives can win everywhere,” Mr. Bopp said in his e-mail to committee members. “Well, Scott Brown is a good test case for these claims. He is a principled conservative who passes with flying colors the Reagan test contained in the Reagan resolution and who won a convincing victory in Mass.”

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