Republican National Convention
Former GOP officials urge party to "come back to mainstream"

By David Postman

Times chief political reporter

NEW YORK — As the Republican National Convention opens today starring some of the party's best-known moderates, a group of former Republican officeholders says that lineup is only stagecraft designed to soften the look of an increasingly right-wing party.
A newly formed organization of former GOP officeholders will use a full-page ad in The New York Times today to urge their party to "Come Back to the Mainstream." They want to shift the party and President Bush to the left on the environment, stem-cell research, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

"There are a whole host of areas where I personally think the administration has gotten too harsh, too partisan, too unwilling to reach across the aisle to get good answers to tough problems," said former Washington Gov. Dan Evans, one of 17 former GOP officials who signed the ad.