Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed says he won’t run for Georgia congressional seat

Ex-Christian Coalition head won’t run for Congress

ATLANTA — Former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed announced Wednesday he will not run for Congress in Georgia, saying he can do more to push a conservative agenda through his work for a political startup.

Reed considered seeking the Republican nomination for Georgia’s 7th Congressional District northeast of Atlanta, but said on the social networking site Twitter and his Web site that he won’t.

The boyish-looking 48-year-old was clobbered in his first bid for elected office in 2006. Facing questions about his ties to disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he was defeated by a little-known state senator in the race to become Georgia’s lieutenant governor.

He said in a letter to supporters that he made the decision not to run for Congress after much thought and prayer.

“I can best advance conservative principles by continuing to serve as CEO of Century Strategies, LLC, and founding chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition,” he wrote.

Century Strategies is his public relations firm and the Faith and Freedom Coalition is a startup aimed at using the economic crisis and social media to bring a younger and more diverse audience into the GOP fold.

“I believe electing 50 to 100 men and women of character and conservative beliefs to Congress and statewide office over the next two election cycles is a more efficacious way to advance the conservative agenda than seeking public office myself in 2010,” Reed said.

The 7th District is up for grabs because GOP Rep. John Linder is stepping down after 18 years in the House. The district is reliably Republican, with 60 percent of voters there casting ballots for GOP presidential contender John McCain in 2008. Two Republican state lawmakers — state Sen. Don Balfour and state Rep. Clay Cox — have said they’ll run to succeed Linder, and Reed’s decision to stay out of the race could open the door for even more challengers.

The Christian Coalition was founded by Pat Robertson, but Reed made it an electoral force to be reckoned with. He was at the helm from 1989 to 1997, a telegenic GOP whiz kid who became the face for the evangelical movement.

Time Magazine called him “The Right Hand of God” when he appeared on the cover in 1995.

Reed left the coalition to court Christian conservative voters for George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign.

With Bush in the White House, Reed headed home to the Atlanta suburbs, where he helped topple the Democratic Party that had led Georgia for generations. He was chairman of the state Republican Party for the 2002 elections, a watershed year in Georgia politics that saw the state elect its first Republican governor since Reconstruction. The GOP also grabbed control of the state Senate and ousted Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Cleland.

Reed left the party and used his national profile and vast network of Republican contacts in a lucrative consulting business with work in Georgia and Washington. But that didn’t help him in 2006, when he decided to emerge from behind-the-scenes networking and run on his own.

The veteran campaign strategist was the prohibitive early favorite when he entered the race to become Georgia’s lieutenant governor.

But he was dogged by questions about his ties to Abramoff, who had hired Reed’s public relations and lobbying businesses to battle the opening of casinos that would compete with Abramoff’s American Indian clients. The work brought Reed more than $5.3 million and landed Abramoff behind bars.

Reed was never charged with a crime and said he regrets the work he did with Abramoff. But his squeaky clean image was tarnished all the same, linked to the culture of corrupt influence peddling in Washington.

Reed lost the primary race to then-state Sen. Casey Cagle, 56 percent to 44 percent. He returned to his consulting firm and kept a relatively low profile. He re-emerged last year, however, with the launch of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Web site.

On the Net:

www.ffcoalition.com/