Did support for gay marriage doom another GOP contender? In the race for the GOP nomination for Virginia's 8th Congressional District (to take on Democratic incumbent Jim Moran), Patrick Murray narrowly defeated pro-gay marriage Republican Matthew Berry. WaPo notes--and criticizes--a Murray mailer which in the waning days highlighted Berry's support for gay marriage.
WaPo naturally found the mailer "misleading." Why? Hard to say. Because Berry clearly said he supported gay marriage and Patrick Murray in a close race in a moderate district found highlighting that policy difference useful to achieving victory. More proof that, it is a bad idea to vote for gay marriage if you are a Republican.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/06/a_gay_marriage_gop_spat_in_vir.html
Tom Campbell's defeat in the race for GOP nomination to take on Sen. Barbara Boxer confirms the lessons of Dede Scozzafava: It’s a bad idea to be for gay marriage, at least if you are a Republican.
Meanwhile, National Organization for Marriage - California PAC won three pivotal election races during the 2010 California primary election season. NOM-CA PAC ran independent expenditure campaigns to elect State Senate candidate Joel Anderson (SD36), and State Assembly candidates Andy Pugno (AD 5), Sunder Ramani (AD 43), and Chris Lancaster (AD 59). Lancaster won by just 3000 votes, suggesting NOM's involvement was the margin of victory, while Ramani was narrowly defeated in Assembly District 43. (John Eastman's loss against Steve Cooley was the only other sad note out of California--he was outspent 3 to 1 against a better-known LA District Attorney.)
Tom Campbell's remarkable collapse in the polls tracks NOM's voter outreach efforts remarkably. According to polling on Real Clear Politics, Campbell led the US Senate race by as much as 15 points over Carly Fiorina on May 19th. NOM launched its robo calls over the three day period of May 19-21. From that point forward, Campbell faded and Fiorina surged, winning the race in a landslide.
Dear Friends of Marriage,
Victory in California! With your help, NOM played a central role in defeating pro-gay marriage GOP Senate candidate Tom Campbell yesterday.
Back in March, NOM was the first on the air with TV ads highlighting Tom Campbell's liberal record on gay marriage and taxes. In May, we came back with a wildly successful automated phone campaign to 600,000 GOP primary voters, letting them know where Tom Campbell stands on gay marriage. Read More »
Predictable WaPo op ed Supreme Court overturning Prop 8. Same-sex marriage is not one of the fundamental rights of man. Overturning Prop 8 would be an outrageous violation of the civil rights of millions of voters in states with similar marriage amendments.
There's so much election news. Consider the Maine governor's race, where Paul LePage won the GOP nomination. Pro-gay marriage forces have vowed to pass another gay marriage bill in 2011, despite the historic rejection of gay marriage by Maine voters last November. If Paul LePage wins the governor's seat he has promised to veto any such effort to circumvent the will of the voters. LePage is a really interesting guy, not your typical profile. He is one of 18 kids--"-when you come from a family of 18 kids you have to be pro-life -- otherwise, you might have been 'the one,'" he told Maine Public Broadcasting.
His father was an abusive disciplinarian, so he ran away at home at age 11 and lived homeless on the streets for a few years, before eventually graduating from high school, working to put himself through college, eventually earning a master's degree in business administration. He serves as general manager of Marden's Salvage and Surplus and the mayor of Waterville.
He is both a fiscal and a social conservative--and something else as well:
"I'm putting myself out there because I believe I am the candidate, not only on the Republican side, but the Democratic side and the Independent side, that both have a life history that understands the stigma that goes with being homeless, poor and on the streets, and I understand what it does to the human body, the human psyche," Lepage says.
Bob Inglis failed to avoid a runoff for his South Carolina GOP House seat on Tuesday. He trailed Gowdy badly. Why? Look no further than this op ed Inglis wrote, after voting for the Federal Marriage Amendment. Why vote for marriage and then denounce his own supporters as theocratic hysterics?
Marriage Amendment: Marriage amendment's failure isn't a sign of our 'slouching toward Gomorrah'
Spartanburg Herald-Journal - Friday, July 21, 2006
By U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis
The captains of the culture wars were hankering for a fight this summer, so we had a vote on a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I voted "yes," but the amendment fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution.
In the aftermath of that failure, the captains of the culture wars will no doubt announce that it's more proof America is, in fact, slouching toward Gomorrah.
Could it be, though, that it was the wrong amendment at the wrong time with the wrong leadership motives?
Dear Friends of Marriage,
California heats up!
Just a week until the big June 8 primary, and here’s good news.
A new poll shows pro-gay-marriage Republican Steve Cooley slipping far behind in the race for California Attorney General. The Survey USA Advantage poll showed Tom Harman pulling 29 percent, Steve Cooley 22 percent and John Eastman 19 percent, with a whopping 28 percent of Republicans STILL undecided just a week out. Read More »
Yesterday President Obama issued a proclamation commemorating June as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) month. While declaring support for federal civil unions, conspicuously absent from this declaration is any reference to same-sex marriage or efforts to repeal DOMA:
"Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rightsand ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security."
What are your thoughts on President Obama's proclamation?
Pundits are abuzz about GOP's Mo Brooks unseating of a sitting Congressman in the race to represent Alabama's FifthCongressional District. Pro-marriage voters have a different question. Does Dem nominee Steven Bray support Gay Marriage?
Left in Alabama blog reports: "What's your stand on marriage equality? Marriage as a religious institution should be left up to states and churches. But civil unions that the state recognizes regarding inheritance, visitation, and individual rights, those are legal issues."
Okay, Steve, does this mean you support civil unions but not gay marriage? Or does it mean you think the law should recognize civil gay unions as marriages. Stop futzing around, Steve, Alabama voters want to know!
