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GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina told reporters in Sacramento that the issue was not about religious freedom. Rather, she says it is about being sensitive to those who suffered in the Sept. 11 attacks. Her opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, said it was an issue for New Yorkers. Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher also said religious rights must be protected, but the decision on the project was best left to New Yorkers
-- a common position shared by many fellow Democrats seeking Senate seats. His Republican rival, Rob Portman, said it was about taste. "It's not a question of whether or not they have a right to build it," Portman said. "It's a question of whether or not they should." Democrats in Washington advised candidates to do what was best for their campaigns, reminding them of state demographics and poll results. Democrats sought to keep the conversation focused on job creation
-- their main message as economically struggling voters look to unleash their fury on the party in power. In the end, senior Democrats told candidates, it wasn't as though the president of the United States or the White House needed their defense. "This wasn't something that the president viewed through a political lens," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to an appearance in Seattle. "This is something that he saw as his obligation to address." But it has been Democratic candidates who have had to address the issue of the mosque. In Illinois, Rep. Mark Kirk, the Republican running for Obama's former Senate seat, said he respects religious freedom but suggested the Islamic center be built at a "less controversial site."
His challenger, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, defended the decision to build the facility. "This is about every single religion and remembering what this country was founded on," Giannoulias said as he visited the state fair in Springfield. "You can't just say things when they're nice and flowery. You have to say them when it's the right thing to do." His remarks came one day after the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, came out against plans to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.
[Associated
Press;
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