Emily McEnroe wasn’t surprised that Sam Brownback won the national Students for Life of America presidential straw poll.McEnroe, president of Kansas University’s Students for Life chapter, says many of her group’s members are supporting the Kansas senator in his presidential bid.”The candidate with the strongest pro-life record is by far Sen. Sam Brownback,” McEnroe says. “It is safe to assume that he will continue to receive the majority of the pro-life vote as a result of his outstanding voting record and strong personal stance against abortion.”The straw poll results, which were announced last week, had Brownback with 23 percent of the students’ vote, followed by Fred Thompson (22 percent), Mitt Romney (11 percent), Ron Paul (9 percent), Rudy Giuliani (7 percent), John McCain (5 percent) and Mike Huckabee (5 percent). Six hundred and fifty Students for Life members were asked to answer the question, “Who do you plan on voting for in the presidential primary election?”McEnroe says she isn’t sure if any KU students participated in that straw poll, but she says at least two KU students drove to Ames, Iowa, earlier this month to support Brownback in the straw poll there.”I think that the attention to the abortion issue during the upcoming election will depend largely on the GOP candidate selected,” McEnroe says. “We would all like to see abortion brought to the top of the political priority list where it belongs.” But she’s worried that one Republican candidate might bring the wrong attention to the abortion issue.”Many of the more well-known Republican candidates are absolutely unacceptable from a pro-life standpoint,” McEnroe says. “Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the worst of the lot. Not only did he make personal contributions to Planned Parenthood at least six times throughout the 1990s, he also spoke publicly against the ban on partial-birth abortions and has voted in favor of funding for embryonic stem cell research.”Thankfully, Giuliani’s record is so terrible that it essentially eliminates him as a contender for the Republican nomination, let alone the pro-life vote.” RaeAnn Anderson, president of the abortion-rights group KU4Choice, has a different take on Giuliani.”Surely, the socially conservative base is very displeased with that, but his presence may turn out more of the oft-alienated moderate Republican party members,” Anderson says. “I think it will be very interesting to see how this situation plays out – he seems to be quite popular already.”Anderson says she doesn’t think abortion will be a top issue in the 2008 election. “I think as far as voters are concerned, in general, it’s not a huge issue,” she says. “But, with a caveat, there is some percentage of voters who take abortion to be their only issue.”That goes for college students, too, she says.”Probably because of the lifestyle of a student – that being a financially precarious one – I think economic issues are larger issues for students,” Anderson says. “I also think there is a lot of concern among students about foreign policy – i.e., the war in Iraq.”As far as Brownback is concerned, Anderson says she’s not surprised he won the Students for Life straw poll.”Sen. Brownback has been a very vocal and active anti-choice representative, so good for them that they have identified their man in Congress,” she says. “Personally, I am not a fan of Brownback, and choice activists in general do not appreciate his fundamentalist Christian views on policy being forced onto national legislation arbitrarily.”Specifically on choice, we think he has it wrong and we would like him to rethink his views based on the fact that we live in a democracy – not a theocracy – with a substantial population of women.”_ – Faith Files, which examines issues of faith, spirituality, morals and ethics, is updated by features/faith reporter Terry Rombeck. Have an idea for the blog? Contact Terry at trombeck@ljworld.com, or 832-7145._