LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Unofficial Republican presidential nominee John McCain insisted Wednesday that he had not yet picked a running mate, even as he was confronted here by conservative voters worried that he would select someone who favored abortion rights.
McCain's back-and-forth with voters at New Mexico State University came as Republicans released a schedule for next month's national convention that gives prominent slots to abortion rights proponents, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, keynote speaker and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
The speaker lineup was aimed at attracting moderates and independents into McCain's camp, but it seemed destined to add fuel to the fight already smoldering over abortion rights.
The Arizona senator has been a consistent opponent of abortion rights in Congress, but he has never been fully embraced by social conservatives because of his deviation from party orthodoxy on other issues.
The abortion issue flared last week when McCain told the Weekly Standard that he would not rule out as a running mate former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who favors abortion rights.
McCain has since been trying to shore up his conservative credentials -- insisting at a Saturday forum at Saddleback Church in Orange County that he would be a "pro-life president" and that a McCain presidency "will have pro-life policies."
At a town hall meeting Wednesday in Las Cruces, Republican voter Sandy Gaupel asked McCain about the abortion issue -- explaining in an interview afterward that she wanted personal reassurance from McCain that he would not pick Ridge or Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, who is now an independent.
"I've heard a rumor that you're going to pick a pro-life VP -- is that true?" Gaupel asked McCain.
McCain told the audience he would not discuss the selection process but said he was proud of his "pro-life record in Congress."
"I respect the views of others," he said, adding that he believed "life applies to those that are not born as well as those that are born."
Midway through the town hall meeting, another voter broached the topic. "In the past, you've alienated a great deal of conservatives, who believe that conservative principles are always the answer, by stepping across the aisle," the man told McCain. "Are you going to pick a vice president that conservatives can actually rally around in the future, or are you going to give us someone who will cause us to want to stay home perhaps?"
