Gay Politics: Winning a few seats in targeted states not only stops anti gay legislation, but passes pro equality legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans. Read about the impact of the victories in 2006 and the states to target in 2008.
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By Marty Rouse | Contact
Marty Rouse is National Field Director for HRC.
Before joining HRC, Rouse headed MassEquality, a coalition of organizations dedicated to defending marriage equality in Massachusetts.
Prior, Marty worked in Vermont to protect the pro-civil unions majority in the state Senate in 2000. He also served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration.
Marty and his civil union partner Scott Sherman are proud parents of their two sons Sasha and David.
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VICTORIES IN EQUALITY IN 2006 BY FOCUSING ON KEY STATES
Gay Politics is about finding key states that could be tipping points for the road to equality; places that with a modest investment of campaign expertise and cash, success could not only impact the local community but also have national impact.
In 2006, we targeted a dozen states. I'll analyze six here: Pennsylvania, Oregon, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona and Massachusetts.
PENNSYLVANIA
Due to a disagreement between the state Senate and House, Pennsylvania narrowly avoided a marriage ban being sent to the ballot (one chamber preferred to ban marriage only; the other wanted to ban all partnership recognition). Clearly the legislature would not make the same mistake in 2007 if it had the chance.
The only way to stop a ban from heading to the ballot was to try and change legislative control of a chamber. Most pundits thought a flip was impossible. With the help of local groups HRC targeted races and mobilized 200 volunteers who were mostly interested in defeating homophobic U.S. Senator Rick Santorum. We sent the volunteers into key state legislative Districts.
On Election Day the partisan breakdown changed by nine seats, just enough to flip the chamber. The newly-elected majority has no intention of bringing up a marriage ban, and therefore it will not be on the November ballot.
OREGON
While most pundits believed the votes were there in the state House to pass a civil unions bill, the House Speaker refused to bring it up for a vote. HRC made it a priority to see that she would not be Speaker in '07. Rather than just target her for defeat (it appeared likely she'd be re-elected), we also targeted four seats to flip the chamber and therefore change Speakers.
Working with statewide partners, our funds and staff helped pick-up four new seats, and while the Speaker did indeed win her own re-election, she was no longer in control. And, in a few short months, Oregon did indeed pass a domestic partners bill.
IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE
Both states were facing marriage amendment fights in their legislatures. If legislative control could change hands, not only would the marriage amendments disappear, but supportive legislation could pass.
With an investment in door-to-door canvassers in Iowa and a significant infusion of cash and staff in New Hampshire, both states saw changes in legislative control. And rather than fighting a marriage ban in '08, Iowa enacted a GLBT civil rights law and New Hampshire enacted civil unions.
These two small states have national impact, as we know from their status as first in the nation presidential selection states. Consider the impact of the presidential candidates campaigning in two states whose legislatures might be debating marriage ban amendments rather than what they did witness this year; states whose GLBT citizens have newly-enacted rights.
We opened a campaign field office in Concord, NH to make sure the campaigns saw GLBT people along the campaign trail.
In Iowa we worked with One Iowa to conduct caucus trainings both to demystify the caucus process and to empower our community to be out, loud and proud at their caucus. And on C-SPAN's coverage of the Iowa caucuses that night, they featured a lesbian couple who attended the caucus training and who introduced resolutions to be considered by their state Party to pass a fully-inclusive ENDA and also to support marriage equality. The issues were debated openly and surely educated the public on these two issues. Both resolutions passed unanimously and will be considered at the state Convention.
ARIZONA AND MASSACHUSETTS
Both states were debating marriage bans and both made history; Arizona was the first state to defeat a marriage/domestic partnership ban at the ballot, and Massachusetts legislature defeated all attempts to put a marriage amendment on the ballot that would take away the right to marry.
These are just some of the key battles that our community has won at the state level that have national significance.
KEY STATES FOR 2008 ELECTION
This year, with all of the energy and excitement surrounding the presidential election, it is incumbent upon us to focus on the state battles and the key congressional and U.S. Senate races. It would truly be a shame if we were to elect a fair-minded President, but miss key opportunities to elect larger fair-minded majorities in Congress or to ignore key ballot questions or state legislative races.
READ THE CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ABOUT THE SPECIFIC STATES THAT WE ARE TARGETING IN GAY POLITICS 2008...
