WASHINGTON _ Republicans in Kansas say Josh Svaty is the Democrat they most fear in a general election for governor next year. But because of Planned Parenthood, his candidacy could be doomed.
He's an "extremist," the group says of the charismatic, 37-year-old farmer from Ellsworth, Kan., with an anti-abortion voting record. Laura McQuade, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, has vowed to stop Svaty "from gaining even the slightest political foothold in Kansas."
Svaty's predicament is a case study of the dilemma facing Democrats: Should the party make issues such as abortion a litmus test for candidates, even if insisting on ideological purity could cost it at the polls?
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez waded into the heated debate earlier this year when he said all Democratic candidates must support a woman's right to make choices about her own health.
"That is not negotiable," Perez told the Huffington Post. The DNC later said it doesn't believe in litmus tests. Anti-abortion Democrats say the damage was done.
Svaty warns the party risks losing voters in rural communities if it applies a one-size-fits-all approach on social issues.
"It is important to have healthy diversity of opinions," he told the Kansas City Star in an interview. "A Democrat in Baleyville, Kansas is not the same as a Democrat in Brooklyn, New York. They just aren't _ the worlds from which they come are wildly different."
