The race for Oregon’s U.S. Senator race may very well be the election that will give Barack Obama the 60th vote in the senate.
The race has been identified on a national level as a very tight race that may be decided by a few percentage points. That means every vote will count when the point spread is so tight.
Enter GLBT Oregonians. The Oregon Lavender Vote.
Estimates of Oregon’s GLBT electorate vary. However, the estimates from scholars and people who study such things range from a low of 3% to a high of 10% of the Oregon electorate.
A 3 percentage point margin in favor of Jeff Merkley on election night may very well be the winning deciding factor.
Jeff Merkley in the U.S. Senate will mean a big difference in Supreme Court Justice appointments as the senate must approve those appointments. Which means that two pro-equality Oregon senators will be voting on those appointments.
Jeff Merkely in the U.S. Senate could possibly make the 60 vote margin needed to prevent killing important legislation needed to put our country back on track.
Oregon GLBT voters will possibly hold the key to winning a very tight race where every vote counts as precious.
Gordon Smith knows this and that’s why he is desperately airing an ad that says he supports gay rights in one market.
But then Smith shows his true colors by simultaneously running an ad in another market smearing Constitution Party candidate Dave Brownlow for supporting gay marriage. (Something which Brownlow does not support)
By trying to smear Brownlow as a gay marriage supporter, Smith loses all credibility as a supporter of gay rights. In fact it’s another Smith blatant betrayal of all the GLBT people who have supported him in the past. It’s an out right insult to use the issue of gay rights and gay marriage to pander votes in a win-at-all-costs campaign. Gordon Smith can’t be for and against gay rights in different markets and not pay dearly for such a two-faced position.
If the Oregon LGBT electorate is only 3% as some suggest, it would be nothing short of sweet justice to see Mr. Smith lose this election by that 3% margin and have to return to running his frozen pea plant in the middle of nowhere eastern Oregon.
Make a financial contribution between now and 12pm on Thursday, October 30th to one or more of your favorite campaigns below and Stonewall Democrats will make a PAC contribution to these campaigns based on the total amount raised and number of individuals who contribute per candidate through this page.
$1000 PAC check to the campaign with the highest amount of money raised on this page
$1000 PAC check to the campaign with the highest number of individual contributors on this page
$500 PAC check to the campaign with the second highest amount of money raised on this page
$500 PAC check to the campaign with the second highest number of individual contributors on this page
$250 PAC checks to all other campaigns
Polling closes on Thursday, October 30th at 12pm. Winning campaigns will be given notification of expected PAC contribution amount by 5pm on Thursday, October 30th. Checks will be cut same day. Making your financial contribution to Democratic candidates and progressive ballot initiative campaigns through Stonewall Democrats ActBlue partnership allows us to track LGBT dollars raised for pro-equality candidates and ballot initiatives.
National Stonewall Democrats endorsed Jeff Merkley and have targeted his race as a national priority for support.
The following email went out today in a follow up mail piece sent to thousands of households across the nation.
A nationwide phone bank is underway to further support these identified key races across the country.
National Stonewall Democrats were a critical factor in defeating the likes of virulently anti-gay Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum who also compared same-sex marriages with polygamy among other things. Does that sound familiar?
CONFIDENTIAL MEMO
FROM: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JON HOADLEY
TO: STONEWALL DEMOCRATS
SUBJECT: ELECTION STRATEGY
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 30-DAY STONEWALL STRATEGY
John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin demonstrates that the Republican Party is still the party of James Dobson and Pat Robertson.
According to Time Magazine, Wasilla Bible Church is one of the largest and most influential organizations in the “Bible Belt” region of southern Alaska. It’s not surprising then that the city’s former councilmember and mayor Sarah Palin is a member. However, it is alarming that Palin chooses to worship at a church that promotes conversion therapy for “homosexuals”and supported Focus on the Family’s recent “ex-gay” conference Love Won Out. Should she be Vice President?
It’s unfortunate and disappointing that McCain – while he has always maintained a poor record on issues of equality for LGBT Americans – has been so quick to sell out his principles and flip-flop on almost every important issue facing our country and our world to win an election. From the top of the ticket on down, we can – and after eight long years of George W. Bush we must – do better.
Make no mistake about it, the future of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement is at stake in this election. If McCain wins, ENDA, hate crimes, domestic partner benefits for federal employees – all those issues so critically important to us and to the strength of our families – will stall or even fail.
Not only must we win at the top of the ticket with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, we need to elect pro-equality Democrats up and down the ticket from coast to coast and build our numbers in government and advance progressive legislation that creates greater opportunity for all Americans.
Please download and review the Stonewall Strategy and consider a generous contribution of $5000, $2500, $1000, $500, $250, or $100 to the National Stonewall Democrats PAC to ensure we have the resources necessary to invest in our local chapters, elect pro-equality Democrats and defeat anti-marriage equality ballot initiatives across the country.
Your PAC contribution will be put to work immediately in the remaining 30 days of this election to ensure pro-equality Democratic pick-ups in the U.S. House and Senate, as well as in targeted state legislative races across the country, including in Texas where Democrats are down by only 5 seats in the state house.
In addition, the Obama campaign will send hundreds of LGBT volunteers to battleground states like Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Ohio between October 31st and November 4th to get out the vote for Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.Are you willing to travel to a battleground state to help elect Barack Obama? Please contact Obama Pride National Co-Chair Jesse Garcia, jessegarciadallas@gmail.com.
Make a contribution today for the future of the Democratic Party and the struggle for full equality.
Paid for by National Stonewall Democrats PAC. 1325 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005. Stephen Discoll (Pembroke, MA) and Laurie McBride (Sacramento, CA), Co-Chairs. Jeffrey Tooke (Buffalo, NY), Treasurer. Contributions not deductible for tax purposes. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Solicitations to National Stonewall Democrats Political Action Committee are reserved for dues-paid members.
“IF YOU CARE about the rights of LGBT citizens, the two most important things you can do in the next few weeks are to vote for Barack Obama and to persuade friends and family to join you. Without for a moment diminishing the importance of the ongoing California initiative fight (which is itself huge), the ground zero for the movement pursuing LGBT equality right now is the presidential election. Either we will go backward, losing key rights we now have and leaving the country in the hands of those who offer at best their grudging “tolerance” (the term Sarah Palin used in the debate), or we go forward with real equality within our grasp.”
Read the rest at The Advocate. (Definitely worth the read)
Tomorrow night over 1,000 people are slated to attend Basic Rights Oregon Annual Diner, Metamorphosis, at the Oregon Cenvention Center. While it’s not specifically billed as a Coming Out Day event, it’s still a significant testament to the power of Coming Out.
Incumbent Republican Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern, who drew attention to her own homophobia back in March, was back at it again last night in a candidate forum. Kern also drew attention to herself this year when she was twice stopped by law enforcement trying to enter the Oklahoma capitol building armed with a gun.
The gun toting Republican Oklahoma State Representaive Sally Kern said,
“While terrorism has killed more than 3,000 people in the continental United States in the last 15 years, homosexual behavior has killed more than 100,000,” the Republican representative said. “It’s a danger to life. It is a danger to health.”
Back in March of this year, Kern said she was not aware her comments were being taped. This time the cameras were rolling at a candidate forum. The video can be seen at Oklahoma City KOCO 5 web site.
The Supreme Court released its historic ruling at 11:30 a.m. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory and that the state’s “understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection.”
“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” the majority wrote. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.”
Conversations on the street about the exchange on relationship recognition at the VP debate between Biden and Palin have been mixed as to what exactly was said and what it means.
Below is the transcript of the entire exchange thanks to CNN and the video clip found on youtube.com.
FILL: The next round of — pardon me, the next round of questions starts with you, Sen. Biden. Do you support, as they do in Alaska, granting same-sex benefits to couples?
BIDEN: Absolutely. Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. Look, in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple.
The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted — same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, et cetera. That’s only fair.
It’s what the Constitution calls for. And so we do support it. We do support making sure that committed couples in a same-sex marriage are guaranteed the same constitutional benefits as it relates to their property rights, their rights of visitation, their rights to insurance, their rights of ownership as heterosexual couples do.
IFILL: Governor, would you support expanding that beyond Alaska to the rest of the nation?
PALIN: Well, not if it goes closer and closer towards redefining the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman. And unfortunately that’s sometimes where those steps lead.
But I also want to clarify, if there’s any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves, you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don’t agree with me on this issue.
But in that tolerance also, no one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties.
But I will tell Americans straight up that I don’t support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman, and I think through nuances we can go round and round about what that actually means.
But I’m being as straight up with Americans as I can in my non- support for anything but a traditional definition of marriage.
IFILL: Let’s try to avoid nuance, Senator. Do you support gay marriage?
BIDEN: No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.
The bottom line though is, and I’m glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that’s the case, we really don’t have a difference.
IFILL: Is that what your said?
PALIN: Your question to him was whether he supported gay marriage and my answer is the same as his and it is that I do not.
IFILL: Wonderful. You agree. On that note, let’s move to foreign policy.
back in March, was back at it again last night in a candidate forum. Kern also drew attention to herself this year when she was twice stopped by law enforcement trying to enter the Oklahoma capitol building armed with a gun.