Andrew Tobias, the Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), explains why supporting the DNC is critical to advance equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and queers.
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By Andrew Tobias | Contact
Andy Tobias is a generous donor to the LGBT movement and Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and the founder of the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council.
While at Harvard College, he published Let's Go: The Student Guide To Europe. And then was vice president at the National Student Marketing Association.
After Harvard Business School, he become Contributing Editor of New York Magazine, and later Esquire. He is the author of three New York Times best-sellers. His Managing Your Money software for a time dominated the personal finance category.
His books include his coming out story: The Best Little Boy in the World and The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up.
He is a maverick thinker: His anti-smoking commercials have run throughout the former Soviet Union. His work on auto insurance reform led to the placement of three initiatives on the March 1996 California ballot.
He has received numerous awards for his work.
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Here's my reasoning:
1. DEMOCRATS ARE OVERWHELMINGLY MORE SUPPORTIVE OF OUR ISSUES THAN REPUBLICANS
> Can you think of a single election -- for anything -- anywhere -- ever -- when the Republican was better on our issues than the Democrat? Even one? (After months of asking everyone, we've come up with two -- out of thousands.)
> John McCain is AGAINST us on Hate Crimes, AGAINST us on ENDA, AGAINST us on Military Service, AGAINST us on Civil Unions.
> On the HRC scorecard for the 109th Congress (the 110th is not yet scored), 224 Republicans scored ZERO -- there was NOTHING they were with us on.
> Meanwhile, Just five Republicans -- compared with 154 Dems -- scored above 80%. (And two of those five, Jim Kolbe and Lincoln Chafee, are now gone.)
2. JUDGES APPOINTED BY DEMOCRATS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE FAIR-MINDED THAN THOSE APPOINTED BY REPUBLICANS
> John McCain is firmly on record wanting to tilt the Judiciary further to the right.
3. IT'S THUS FUNDAMENTAL TO OUR CONTINUED PROGRESS THAT DEMOCRATS DO WELL NOVEMBER 4
> We need a massive turnout of progressive voters November 4 to WIDEN our lead in Congress ... WIN back the White House ... and FLIP more state legislatures from Red to Blue.
4. THERE ARE MANY GOOD WAYS TO DO THAT, BUT THE "FEDERAL MONEY" WE'RE ALLOWED TO GIVE -- LIMITED BY LAW -- IS THE MOST PRECIOUS ... PRECISELY BECAUSE IT IS LIMITED BY LAW
> It's like the BLANK in Scrabble (or the Queen in chess or the Ace in cards). Yes, dollars are dollars (and tiles are tiles, pieces are pieces, cards are cards). But just as with the BLANK or the Queen or the Ace, federal dollars trump the rest because, they are the most powerful and most flexible. Under the law, many political activities can be underwritten ONLY with federal dollars.
> Consider: If a worthy 527 or c4 comes up with a brilliant way to help, it can go to a single billionaire and -- legally -- get $25 million wired in overnight. That same billionaire can give the DNC just $28,500. So with nonfederal committees, it's less important that "everybody pitch in." A few wealthy donors (bless their hearts) can ride to the rescue. With federal committees, like the DNC, the only way to raise millions IS for everyone to pitch in.
5. AN EXCELLENT WAY FOR MAJOR DONORS TO GIVE FEDERAL MONEY IS THROUGH THE DNC'S GAY & LESBIAN LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
> Money thus given is visibly LGBT. It is noticed. It gets people like the chair of the Democratic Party sitting next to transgender heroes like Renee Richards at fundraising dinners. (Both Yalies -- that was fun.) Inch by inch, we press forward.
> Federal money to the DNC is not just warehoused to be used for an ocean of October TV ads. Important as those are, in these days of voter cynicism (and Tivo) they have diminishing effect.
> Instead, the DNC invests in the nuts and bolts infrastructure of turning out voters on Election Day -- and making sure their votes count.
> As of March, we already had tens of thousands of neighborhood leaders signed up. By the end of the summer, it will be hundreds of thousands if not millions -- each with the ability to print customized "walk sheets" of progressive voters in his or her neighborhood; and to print his or her own customized ("Elm Street Democrats") literature to leave behind.
> We have also been working with more than 1,000 local polling officials -- now, not on Election Day -- to assure adequate polling machines (so in Ohio it won't take two hours to vote in Democratic precincts and only 7 minutes in Republican precincts) ... to avoid "butterfly ballots" ... to assure a "chain of custody" for ballots ... and more.
> Funded by you, these efforts help not only to win the White House, but to elect Senators, House Members, state legislators, and all the rest. They tilt the whole playing field our way.
> And while our main focus is very much on November 4, investments in the DNC should pay dividends in 2009, 2010, and beyond. Unlike hundreds of millions of dollars in TV ads that simply fade away, our investments in infrastructure should endure. We are finally set up so that the voter files we maintain for the state parties are bidirectional. That is, we clean the files for changes of address, phone numbers and so on ... but each time they are used locally, more information comes back to us from the field (this household really cares about the environment; this one lost a son in Iraq; this one is LGBT) to enrich future voter contact.
6. GIVING DIRECTLY TO CANDIDATES IS GREAT, BUT...
> If we only fund TV ads for candidates, but not the Party infrastructure, we forfeit our most leveraged way of turning out voters for those candidates. It's not either/or. We need to do both!
> As important as the House and Senate are, the White House is even more important. Yet the law allows you to give $42,700 direct to House and Senate candidates but only $2,300 to our Presidential candidate. Clearly, that allocation is out of whack. The way to bring it into reasonable balance is by giving to the DNC, whose primary focus in 2008 is electing a Democratic President.
7. THE DNC IS DEEPLY COMMITTED TO OUR EQUALITY
> Some are concerned that the money we give doesn't go right back into turning out the gay vote. But we need to be logical about this. New York and California provide a huge proportion of our funds -- but would it be smart to invest those funds in New York and California? To win in those state by even wider margins? Or should we invest that money mostly in swing states? Well, it's the same thing with LGBT money. We should want it invested wherever it will work most powerfully to elect fair-minded Democrats so we can get the rights we deserve.
> Some feel we should direct the LGBT money we raise to defeating the hateful state anti-marriage amendments. But we need to be logical about this, too. It makes no sense to take precious federal dollars and put them to work doing nonfederal work. The Supreme Court will ultimately decide the Constitutionality of many of these measures. Whom do we want appointing the next few Justices? Again: The DNC should put its money wherever it best helps us win. (There's actually much more to say about this, so if I haven't sold you, please contact me and give me another shot.)
> However you think we should invest to win, here's the good part:
> We had 142 openly LGBT delegates and alternates at the 1996 Democratic National Convention ... 212 in 2000 ... 255 in 2004. (The Republicans, needless to say, had none. When Jim Kolbe spoke in 2000, the Texas delegation fell to its knees in prayer.) We will be even better represented in Denver this August.
> In 2004 only 16 of the 56 states and territories had numerical goals for LGBT delegate inclusion -- compared with 50 of the 56 in 2008.
> Four of the 25 voting members Governor Dean appointed to the Platform Committee are LGBT -- 16%. One of them is "T" for the first time in history. Think about this. We play a meaningful role in writing the Platform of the longest-continuously-standing political party on the planet.
> The DNC's National Lawyers Council has set up a working group to educate political and electoral staff at every level on the special concerns for Transgender voters.
> The DNC's Director of Compliance, Alan Reed, is openly gay.
> So, too, the Northeast Political Director, Art Decoursey; the Director of Party Affairs & Delegate Selection, Phil McNamara; the Deputy Finance Director, Julie Tagen; the Midwest Finance Director, Gautham Raghavan.
> Our current LGBT liaison, Brian Bond (formerly executive director of the Victory Fund) is, of course, gay. Tom Petrillo, our terrific GLLC fundraising deputy, is gay.
> But for the purpose of advancing equality, our most important openly gay staffer may be Parag Mehta, National Training Director, because he gets to train hundreds of organizers and future Party leaders, who then touch tens of thousands more. Parag writes:
"Three years ago, Governor Dean asked me to do this, I had my reservations about having to travel to all 50 states to train our Democratic activists, Party leaders and campaign staff. But what really threw me was when Governor Dean encouraged me to 'come out' in each training. Being openly gay is good and fine in some places, but I worried about the impact it might have in less progressive parts of the country. As usual, he was right. When I ‘out' myself during my trainings (usually in a casual and humorous way) the reaction is palpable. The people I'm training are affected by the knowledge that LGBT Democrats are part and parcel of the 50 State Strategy. It's critical for us to be visible at every level of our campaigns and our Party, to help broaden our Party and live our values."
> One of the nine DNC officers is so openly gay he's written two books about it. And the Chairman of the DNC, though straight, has made our equality one of his key priorities ever since he signed, and then traveled his state helping the citizenry get comfortable with, the nation's first civil unions law.
> The DNC is building a 2008 PRIDE at the Polls program that will include unprecedented outreach by the DNC, State Parties, and National Stonewall Democrats to LGBT Americans.
I'm not suggesting in all this that we've reached the promise land. Just that we're making progress... that the DNC is engaged in our struggle... that it is worthy of your support.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO REPUBLICANS
Help us help you get your party back. Once your party supports equal rights (not to mention stem cell research and prudent fiscal policy), we'll bid you a reluctant farewell. But in the meantime, you are a most welcome guest.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO LARGE DONORS
If you give so much politically you have to be concerned with the federal limits (thank you!), you will find them, and a brief strategy memo here.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO EVERYONE ELSE
I can't stress enough how important it is that everyone do something. Prior to 2003, people could be found to write $5 million checks. One gave $12 million. Today, by law, those same heroes can do "only" $28,500. So we need to spread the load over vastly more shoulders. To win, and advance our equality, we need everybody to chip in.
