DES MOINES - The focus among Iowa Republican leaders on social issues is drowning out other parts of the GOP message and could cost the party in elections this November, said a pair of Iowa Republican stalwarts Wednesday.

Mary Lundby, former Iowa Senate Republican leader from Marion, said many GOP voters in the state are more worried about the economy and energy prices than they are about social issues like abortion or gay rights.

And the election of social conservatives as the state party's national party committeeman and committeewoman has caused friction within the party, said Ray Hoffmann, a former Republican Party of Iowa chairman from Sioux City.

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance, and Kim Lehman, president of Iowa Right to Life, defeated state party veterans Steve Roberts and Sandy Greiner for spots on the Republican National Committee during elections at the state convention earlier this month.

The state party's central committee has given short shrift to other topics in favor of social issues, and that could turn off voters, Lundby said.

"Voters have got so many other issues on their minds and when you only coalesce on those (social) issues, you lose those voters in the chatter, and we can't afford that," she said.

Lundby, a state legislator for 22 years, said the central committee has lost touch with rank-and-file voters, and her hopes for Republicans to retake the Iowa House this fall have faded.

Hoffmann said he thinks the party can still make some gains in the Legislature, especially in the western parts of the state.

But he criticized party leaders for pushing social issues at the expense of other concerns.

Scheffler said Iowa Republicans have to differentiate themselves from Democrats on a range of topics, and social issues are an important part of the equation.

"To say social issues are not important is just not real good political reasoning in my view," he said.

But he also said the party must take care to strike an even balance between social and fiscal issues in its message to voters.

Scheffler said Republican lawmakers at the federal and state level pay lip service to social conservatives but don't always deliver on their promises.

He pointed to the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate failing to approve an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman in 2004 as an example.

Lehman said the state party hasn't abandoned core Republican fiscal values like small government and low taxes.

She said the notion that the party is torn between social conservatives and fiscal conservatives is fabricated by the media and doesn't reflect reality.

"Republicans have always stood for these principles, and that's what we vote for," she said.

Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University, called the election of Scheffler and Lehman a "skirmish" to influence the direction of the state party.

Goldford said some in the party have argued that a more conservative approach could energize the party's base, while others call for the party to take a more moderate approach to social issues to appeal to centrist voters.

Prior to this year, religious conservatives comprised around 35 to 40 percent of Republican caucus turnout, but polls this year indicated that proportion jumped to around 60 percent, he said.

Likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain, an Arizona senator, finished fourth in the caucuses, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, won the nominating contest.

It remains to be seen what will happen if the party shifts to the right on social issues, Goldford said.

"It's a question of what will socially moderate Republicans do, and, in general, will they stay with a party that seems to be pulled toward harder positions they may not hold," he said.

Fred Love can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or fred.love@lee.net.