Abortion battle

While it's unlikely that the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition can win its point in the platform hearings, the leadership of the Republican Party has begun to acknowledge that it can no longer shut out the pro-choice wing of the party. "They've been killing us with kindness," says Grefe. "This is very different than last time. Four years ago, I felt like a leper." Indeed, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, chair of the platform committee, made a point of meeting with Grefe and Cullman two weeks ago, and Grefe refers to Thompson as "a great guy."

As the result of a merger between Cullman's Republican Coalition for Choice in Washington and Grefe's Republican Pro-Choice Alliance of New York, the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition has raised $1 million so far this year, which she says will be used to spread the pro-choice gospel within the GOP.

It's not just the group's newfound fundraising prowess that sets Republican leaders on edge; there's also Cullman's reputation as a strategist. At the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, Cullman came close to pulling off a floor fight over the platform language on abortion, which would have made for a messy scene on national television.

In order to bring an issue to the convention floor, six state delegations must band together to move on it. In '96, Cullman had four delegations firmly in her camp -- Maine, Massachusetts, California and Wyoming. Prior to the convention, New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who led her state's delegation, had made noises that seemed to indicate her willingness to jump into the fray. Smoke signals from Albany at the time indicated that, as went Whitman, so would go Gov. Pataki of New York.

But at the last minute, Whitman pulled back. Though she denied forbidding her delegates to join in the fight, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Keane told a different story. When I interviewed him on the convention floor during Jack Kemp's acceptance speech, Keane told me that the Jersey delegation had folded "because of the governor's leadership."

But Grefe is hoping to bring the fight to the floor of the convention this year. With a pro-life ticket, she says, "the platform offers the party its last chance" to show that it cares about the rights of women.

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