Washington Blade - October 29, 2004
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

But a small cadre of gay election strategists and fund-raisers with the D.C.-based Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund plan to look toward the state houses in Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, the Carolinas and other states, where a growing number of openly gay candidates for state legislatures are said to have a good chance of winning.

"The state legislatures are where the big battles over gay marriage and other issues of importance to our community are taking place," said Dave DeCicco, the Victory Fund's spokesperson. "Where there is not a single gay voice in a legislature, our community is not being heard."

Twenty-eight gay candidates endorsed by the Victory Fund in state legislative races across the country have a good chance of winning, DeCicco said, following campaigns marked by gay-baiting as well as strong support from hometown newspapers and straight allies.

The gay candidates for state legislative seats are expected to bring far better results than the Victory Fund's efforts to help elect open gays to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The lobby group began this year with high hopes that three gay candidates would win U.S. House seats. But two of the candidates - Democrats Jim Carpenter of Wisconsin and Cathy Woolard of Georgia - lost in primary contests to opposing Democrats.

Democrat Jim Stork of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., abruptly dropped out of his race after winning his party's nomination and even speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Stork has said a heart-related ailment forced him to end his campaign against Republican incumbent Clay Shaw, who was considered the favorite but potentially beatable.

The three openly gay House incumbents - Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) - are expected to win their re-election bids.

The Victory Fund endorsed Frank and Baldwin. DeCicco said Kolbe, whom the group endorsed in the past, did not apply for an endorsement this year. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay political group, gave Frank, Baldwin and Kolbe a perfect 100 percent rating on gay and AIDS issues for the 108th Congress, which covers 2003 and 2004.

Dreier vs. lesbian candidate The Victory Fund has also remained on the sidelines in another congressional race with an openly gay candidate. Lesbian Democratic activist Cynthia Matthews is challenging Rep. David Dreier, a 12-term incumbent representing California's 26th congressional district, located northeast of Los Angeles.

Matthews' campaign got a boost in news media coverage last month when Dreier, a conservative Republican with a poor voting record on gay rights, refused to disclose his sexual orientation in a radio interview that touched on an outing campaign targetting him.

Instead, Dreier stressed that he voted against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage but declined to say why he voted against the interests of gays in nearly all other cases.

Matthews said political insiders in Dreier's district have known he is gay for years but never spoke out publicly about it. She said she chose to run against Dreier because she disagrees with him on the issues.

"Here's a gay congressman who has been in office for 24 years and has voted against his own people," Matthews said. "It's not because he's gay" that she's critical of him on gay issues, she said. "It's because he's a hypocrite."

Robert Haaland is the leading contender in the race for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Haaland would be the first transgendered person elected to that body if he earns more than 50 percent of the vote in a 22-person race on Tuesday. (Photo by AP) Matthews said she never submitted the paperwork to seek a Victory Fund endorsement. But she acknowledged that the group would likely have deemed her candidacy non-viable against an incumbent considered to be entrenched in a Republican-majority district.

She said she entered the race before Dreier was outed and never expected to see his sexual orientation surface in the midst of her campaign to unseat him.

Gay baiting in N.C. In other races, openly gay candidates for state legislatures and county and municipal government offices have drawn sharp opposition and curious reactions by the public and the media.

One of the strongest reactions surfaced in New Hanover County, N.C., where lesbian county commissioner Julia Boseman, a Democrat, is challenging State Senator Woody White, a conservative Republican and supporter of former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms.

White's campaign purchased newspaper ads this week noting that Boseman would be the state's first openly gay legislator and would pursue a "liberal, activist homosexual agenda" if elected.

The ads, some of which were paid for by the state Republican Party, declared that Boseman had been endorsed by the Victory Fund, which it described as a homosexual group based in Washington, D.C.

The ads angered the Wilmington, N.C., Star News, where some of the ads had been placed. The newspaper abruptly withdrew its endorsement of White, saying it strongly disapproved of his decision to attack Boseman based on her sexual orientation.

In Boise, Idaho, lesbian candidate Nicole LeFavour has drawn attention as a candidate for the Idaho State House of Representatives, where she is considered to have a good chance of becoming the first open gay to win a seat in the state legislature. In what some political observers see as an unexpected turn of events, LeFavour's candidacy appears to be gaining steam while the chief sponsor of an anti-gay bill to ban same-sex marriage in Idaho, State Rep. Henry Kulczyk, was ousted from office in the Republican primary.

LeFavour is a Democrat running against GOP challenger Alicia Cassarino, who, as of this week, raised only $1,250 for her campaign, compared to the $65,000 raised by LeFavour, according to the Associated Press. The Victory Fund endorsed LeFavour.

In another election development, voters in Cincinnati are poised to decide whether to repeal an anti-gay ordinance that won voter approval by a lopsided margin in 1993. The ordinance prevents the city government from adopting gay rights laws, including laws aimed at banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Anti-gay groups pushed for placing the ordinance before the city's voters following the highly publicized prosecution of an art gallery that displayed graphic, homoerotic photos taken by the late gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, a development that appeared to inflame anti-gay sentiment in the city.

According to the AP, supporters of the repeal effort believe the city has become more tolerant in the ensuing 11 years. They also have expressed concern that the city is losing tourist and convention revenue because potential visitors have been boycotting the city over the anti-gay ordinance.

"The world has changed a great deal in the last 11 years with more gay people willing to be open about their sexual orientation, more of the public willing to embrace diversity and more businesses recognizing that discrimination is wrong," the AP quoted Gary Wright, chair of Citizens to Restore Fairness, as saying.

Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.

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