FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)
Defeated Incumbents Bring to Four Those Who Have Lost Their Seats over Supporting Same-sex Marriage
Washington, D.C.—The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today celebrated the defeat of two incumbent state Senators who voted to redefine marriage in New York. NOM played a pivotal role in helping to defeat the incumbents, Roy McDonald and Shirley Huntley. In addition, Neil DiCarlo, a NOM-backed challenger to Stephen Saland, was locked in a razor-close battle and expects to defeat the incumbent when final absentee votes are counted.
"Marriage was redefined in New York because of six turncoat Senators, and we vowed we would not rest until they were removed from office," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "We've now taken out four of the six who betrayed marriage, and we're going to finish the job with the remaining two."
Senator James Alesi was driven from his reelection race by NOM's pledge to defeat him. Senator Carl Kruger was forced to resign, and NOM helped elect pro-marriage Republican David Storobin to replace him. McDonald was defeated in the Republican primary by pro-marriage candidate Kathy Marchione. NOM was a major supporter of Marchione, sending two district-wide mailers and launching thousands of telephone calls. And Huntley was defeated in the Democratic primary by pro-marriage candidate James Sanders. NOM also sent two mailers and thousands of telephone calls opposing Huntley.
"When marriage was redefined, Andrew Cuomo and his billionaire friends like Paul Singer and Michael Bloomberg said they'd protect anyone who voted against marriage from political harm. Now look at the political carnage they have wrought," said Brown. "Four of their six Senators are [gone], and the other two will be soon. Neil DiCarlo expects to defeat Sen. Saland when all the votes are cast. And we will vigorously oppose Mark Grisanti in the general election. If that results in Dean Skelos losing his Senate majority, so be it. Skelos is also responsible for redefining marriage because he authorized the vote in the first instance."
Brown continued, "The people of New York have sent a clear and unequivocal message—they will not tolerate politicians, Democrat of Republican, who redefine marriage. It's laughable when groups like the Human Rights Campaign say that nobody has ever lost a race for supporting same-sex marriage. The landscape is littered with the failed political careers of such politicians, including now these four (soon to be six) incumbents in New York."
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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), eray@crcpublicrelations.com, or Jen Campbell (x145), jcampbell@crcpublicrelations.com, at 703-683-5004.
Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).
21 Comments
Good work NOM!
Thank you again for fighting for us.
Um----Kruger and Huntley were indicted for embezzling/fraud----Alesi was retiring anyway...need to "fact check" the other, but SSM had nothing to do with it. Now if I check all incumbents who lost races who voted against SSM, does that prove the people of NY rejected them based on that vote??? Thank you.
flanoggin:
Stay tuned, pal. We have Saland and McDonald on the ropes and just might take them both down in primaries.
Even if you didn't get the message, the intended recipients definitely did.
Great work on this, NOM.
Don't know flanoggin.
But do do the checking up on that. And then get back to us with the numbers please. For it would be soothing just to know how many of them are no longer in office, for whatever reason it might be.
"indicted for embezzling/fraud "
Just the sort of legislators that would betray their constituencies. Maybe the people will wake up to what goes on in Albany.
@flanoggin
"Um----Kruger and Huntley were indicted for embezzling/fraud----Alesi was retiring anyway"
Those are just bigger reasons to replace them with more conservative choices. As for Alesi, the man said he didn't want to risk his party's majority.
I think he realized that he wasn't going to win re-election.
Great work, NOM!
Well gosh. The news reports that I read show that McDonald is slightly behind but that hundreds of absentee ballots have not been counted.
Ooopsie, better fix that in your press release.
My count is this: One retired because of "the lawsuit" - a stupid move that had zero to do with NOM; two were indited for felonies (it's hard to legislate from jail so voters tend not to vote in felons); target number one, Mark Grisanti won with a 20 point spread; and two are still too close to call.
Which means that NOM was effective in... oh, darn, zero elections.
Please, PLEASE, those who oppose equality: give your money to NOM. Please!!!
Timothy!
We've been doing that for the past 3 plus years, where have you been?
@Timothy
Don't be phobic. Your deep hatred of people you don't understand is blinding you.
Your opposition to equality will unjustly leave children intentionally without a mother or a father.
Fight for equality Tim – a mother and a father for every child whenever possible.
Standing up for people who have no voice or power is not easy. It takes courage, conviction and heart. Come on board with NOM Tim. Their fight for equality needs good men. And it will do you good.
Indicted does not mean convicted. Then again, these politicians who betrayed their constituencies had no real convictions either. Just the sort of people the Governor needed and wanted to work with.
Great News! May God give His people the strength and courage to vote ssm and all proponents all the way down! Marriage is a God-ordained Institution between a man and a woman!
Awesome news!
You may have defeated McDonald... then again you may not have. Marchione leads by just a few votes and the race will not be decided until absentee votes are counted. (In fairness, this is also true of Saland, who is slightly ahead of his opponent and again, the winner will depend on the absentee votes.)
But whichever way each of these extremely close races goes, you're considering it good news that half of all REPUBLICAN voters were willing to vote for a candidate who supports same-sex marriage, and in relatively conservative districts at that??? (And that's completely overlooking Grisanti winning his election by a landslide.)
@Timothy
"Please, PLEASE, those who oppose equality: give your money to NOM. Please!!!"
I'm fighting against affirmative action. We already have achieved equality.
@John
"But whichever way each of these extremely close races goes, you're considering it good news that half of all REPUBLICAN voters were willing to vote for a candidate who supports same-sex marriage"
Incumbency has its advantages. The biggest being that your are recognized by most of your constituents.
"(And that's completely overlooking Grisanti winning his election by a landslide.)"
He won the primary by a landslide, but his opponent was nominated by the Conservative party. Grisanti's opponent-if you take the conservative vote and the GOP vote that he recieved-might be enough to unseat him.
Thank you, NOM, for contributing to the exit of these politicians.
Every little bit counts.
The interesting thing is that the winners of Dem primaries are typically significantly short of 50% support. Pro-SSM Dem incumbents are vulnerable. Go get 'em too, NOM.
But can the SSM campaign reasonably cliam that they got someone elected based only on support for SSM? Nope. So Timothy can look in the mirror and recalibrate his knee-jerk criticisms here.
National Organization for Marriage
The primary results are in! NOM has helped to defeat two New York Senators who voted to redefine marriage!
Lets not loose sight of the fact that those who are voting against American people are going down, Faster all the time.
The pro ss"m" supporters on this comment section seem zero understanding of how politics work. If they had followed politics in greater detail they would understand better what counts as effective opposition.
Just the promise of primary challenge is enough to sway votes.
Next time NOM makes threats politicians will listen even more clearly...regardless of how many actually went down.
Why?
Because they want to retain power, & dont want to risk any potential challange or raise the speakter of significant opposition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcNlWqQz7T8&list=UUXJVXHfgZ7ozSzA_KkIzFcg&index=10&feature=plcp