Joseph Cella grew up with politics. He got bitten by the bug while helping his father's associate, and later his father, in getting elected to office.

Now, as founding executive director of the Ave Maria List, a political action committee based in Ann Arbor, Mich., he works to help pro-life and pro-family candidates get elected to Congress. Cella is also the founder and president of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, an event first held in April.

He spoke with Register staff writer Tim Drake about this year's elections.

Tell me about yourself.

I was born and raised in Richmond, Mich. I'm the eldest of three living children. Dad was a small-town country lawyer, and Mom was a homemaker.

Have you always been Catholic?

Yes, I am a cradle Catholic. I remember first learning about the pro-life issue in 1976, when my dad helped launch a pro-life organization at our parish. I've been fascinated by politics and current issues since grade school.

I remember reading about those issues through the news strip on the front page of my father's Wall Street Journal.

How did you get involved in politics?

I worked on my first political campaign in 1980, for one of my dad's law partner's campaign for state representative. I folded literature, went to parades and stood at the polls — typical grass-roots activities. That groomed me to help my dad win his first bid for city council in 1985. My involvement in politics mushroomed from there.

Tell me about the creation of the Ave Maria List.

In the 2000 election cycle, after looking at the successes Emily's List had had in making gains in getting pro-abortion candidates elected to the House and Senate, it struck me that lay Catholics ought to bring their faith into the political arena. Catholics had no formal political organization, and I knew the moment was right to create something so Catholics could join our evangelical brethren and Jewish cousins who have been long active and successful in the political arena. We now have the first and only Catholic-based political action committee in the country.

As our model of operation, we tore a page out of the playbook of Emily's List but made it Catholic. Their methodology works, but Catholics needed a method that would get candidates elected who adhere to the Church's teachings on life, family and subsidiarity. Candidates fill out a 25-question questionnaire. We then provide support in four ways — through direct contributions from our political action committee; independent expenditures, which involve radio ads, mailings and newspaper ads on behalf of the candidate; encouraging our members to donate to targeted races; and doing fund-raisers on behalf of our candidates.

The first cycle we participated in was the 2002 elections. We were most active in supporting Jim Talent in Missouri, Norm Coleman in Minnesota and John Thune in South Dakota. We also got involved in the races in Louisiana, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas. We were victorious in all but two of those races [South Dakota and Louisiana].

What role did the Ave Maria List play in the 2004 elections?

We were active in four races: Thune in South Dakota, Mel Martinez in Florida, Jim DeMint in South Carolina and Tim Michels in Wisconsin. The only state we were not successful in was Wisconsin.

We certainly found that in 2002 and 2004, our message and our methods were validated. We have been blessed with a wave of interest from across the country to help us grow our organization.

What impact do you believe moral issues, particularly abortion, had on this year's races?

I think the moral issues really proved to be the prime motivator for voters across the country. If you look at the statistics for the South Dakota race and the presidential race, there could be no two finer examples.

In the South Dakota Senate race, moral issues were the No. 1 issue of the race. Of those who cited moral values as their primary issue, Thune won 81% of the vote. In the presidential race, President Bush received 78% of those same voters across the country; the president also took 52% of the Catholic vote — a 5-percentage-point increase over the 2002 election.

Why do you think the electorate responded in that way?

We find ourselves in the midst of a cultural war that is undermining two of our country's strongest pillars — life and family. People have seen these bedrock principles under assault by our activist courts and have rallied to elect candidates who would defend these pillars. In the last two election cycles, we have had a net gain of six senators that support these principles. President Bush in the 2002 election cycle became the first president since FDR to have a net pickup in both houses of Congress in a midterm election. Yet he added more in 2004, expanding the majority in the Senate to a nearly filibuster-proof ideological majority.

Emily's List, after spending a total of $50 million in 2002 and 2004, are zero for 5 for net gains in their major Senate races. They were slapped in the face by the reality that voters no longer connect with their platforms that are out of step with middle-American values. The Democratic National Committee is now desperately trying to reinvent itself and find a way to package their liberal values in such a way that voters will find them palatable.

When they now have Bill Clinton saying, “We don't feel comfortable talking about our convictions” and that we need a “discussion” on “what it would take to promote a real culture of life,” you know the left is in serious trouble.

No matter what “spin” they put on their liberal values, it will fall flat with the American people.

Isn't that what happened in South Dakota?

Yes. The South Dakota Senate race was a classic example of that road that so many liberal Democrats have traveled upon and failed. From [U.S. Rep. Richard] Gephardt and [Al] Gore to Clinton and Daschle, all were once pro-life, pro-family, pro-Second Amendment, but to advance their careers they sold out on the tenets of their faith and sold out the voters who initially elected them because of their stance on those issues.

Daschle first ran saying that abortion was an abhorrent practice and that no vote he would ever cast would ever contradict it. What did he do? After 26 years in government, he developed a 90% pro-abortion voting record yet went around the state claiming he was pro-life. The voters saw through that effort to hide his record.

How did the Ave Maria List contribute to the effort to defeat him? There was a lot of talk about 527s — tax-exempt groups engaged in political activities.

We sent the maximum contribution to Thune, our members sent contributions to him, and we engaged in a monthlong statewide radio campaign against Daschle. Through our 527 arm we did a pro-life mailing statewide to 200,000 households, sent e-mails and took out 11 full-page ads in daily newspapers across the state. We also developed the DaschleDocuments.com website and unveiled three video clips of a speech that Daschle had delivered to Emily's List, which he later denied existed.

From looking at polling data and talking to people in South Dakota, I know we played a key role in affecting the outcome of the race. It was the No. 1 Senate race in the country.

What do you have planned next?

There are many miles to go before we sleep. Short term, we have an ongoing battle to block Arlen Specter's ascendance to the position of chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Before the end of the year, we might see a vacancy on the Supreme Court, so we will remain actively engaged in the judicial nomination process. Then we'll set our sights on the top races for the 2006 election cycle.

It is incumbent upon Catholics to activate their faith in the political arena. The Holy Father and the bishops call us to do this, and it works.

Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.