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Romney names Florida social conservative backers

Posted Nov 14, 2011 by William March

Updated Nov 14, 2011 at 01:40 PM

Hoping to shore up his support among social conservatives, Mitt Romney has named a team of Florida anti-abortion and evangelical backers led by former U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon.

Weldon, of Indialantic, is founder of the Space Coast Family Forum and the the congressional Israel Allies Caucus. He served 14 years in Congress, but announced in 2008 he wouldn’t seek re-election. A physician, he attracted national attention during the contgroversy over the brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo by introducing letgislation to force federal judicial review of the case in an attempt to prevent removal of her feeding tube.

Other members of the Romney social conservative team include:

—State Rep. Daniel Davis, R-Jacksonville
—State Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami
—Developer Pat Neal of Bradenton, a former state senator board chairman of the Christian Coalition of Florida.
—Nancy Peek McGowan of Jacksonville, a state-level anti-abortion and Republican Party activist.
—Rodney Akers of Brandon, past president of the Florida Conference of United Methodist Men.
—Suzanne Davis of Tampa, a member of the student affairs board of Jesuit High School.
—John Giotis of Tarpon Springs, a school headmaster, organizer for the Christian Coalition of Pinellas County and political activist.

Romney is eager to repair relations with the social conservative wing of the GOP. In the non-so-distant past, he has taken explicit and strong stands against their positions on issues including abortion and gay rights—positions he has now reversed.

In 2002, for example, Romney ran for governor as a strong supporter of abortion rights, a position he said he took because of the death of a relative from an illegal abortion.

He has said he later changed his position as result of the debate over stem-cell research legislation in the Massachusetts legislature in 2005.