Washington Blade - October 22, 2004
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

"We have full confidence in Patrick," said Bill Brownson, a Columbus, Ohio, GOP activist who chairs the Log Cabin board.

Brownson and two LCR board members from Washington, D.C. - Tim Schoeffler, the board's vice chair, and Bob Kabel, a former Reagan administration official - said the board believes Guerriero has done an excellent job in leading the group through an election year minefield in which Log Cabin chose not to endorse a sitting GOP president.

Guerriero began his job as LCR director in 2003 after serving as a mayor and member of the state legislature in Massachusetts. Gay activists praised him during his first year at Log Cabin for promoting cooperation and civility between gay Democrats and Gay Republicans and rebuilding LCR's relationships with non-partisan gay rights groups.

His arrival in D.C. came at a time when activists expected battle lines to heat up between gays in opposing parties.

During his first months as Log Cabin chief, Guerriero has said, he expected to continue Log Cabin's cordial relationship with a Republican administration that had appointed a gay ambassador and broke ground by naming two successive openly gay White House AIDS czars.

Line in the sand

Things changed earlier this year when Bush moved closer to backing a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Log Cabin leaders, expressing hope that Bush would hold off on endorsing a constitutional amendment, declared they viewed the issue as a "line in the sand" and warned they would withdraw support for the administration if the president crossed that line.

The Log Cabin board voted 22 to 2 in early September to withhold the group's endorsement of Bush following the president's endorsement and active support for the marriage amendment, which failed despite support from GOP leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate.

Most of the organization's members, including its more than 40 chapters throughout the country, have been supportive of the non-endorsement decision, Brownson said.

But in recent weeks, sources familiar with the Log Cabin group have reported learning of discontent among the ranks of a small but influential corps of gay Republicans who believe Guerriero has gone beyond the board's non-endorsement mandate by harshly criticizing the president in television appearances and newspaper commentaries.

The sources, who agreed to be interviewed only on condition that their identities be withheld, said Guerriero and his top lieutenant, Political Director Christopher Barron, have "aided and abetted" Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry through their media criticism of the president.

Guerriero and Barron have said they accepted invitations to appear on television news programs to promote their efforts to defeat the Federal Marriage Amendment, the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage. Log Cabin paid for a series of television ads opposing the legislation.

Some of the critics have circulated anonymous e-mail messages claiming that Barron "worked" for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, the senator from North Carolina, before Guerriero hired him at LCR.

Barron said he supported Edwards' 1998 Senate campaign as a Republican when Edwards challenged incumbent Loach Faircloth, who was well known as a strident opponent of gay civil rights.

Barron said he also submitted a written testimonial praising Edwards on a Web site at the time Edwards announced his candidacy for president in 2003. At no time was he ever a member of Edwards' campaign staff, Barron said.

Bob Kabel, of the Log Cabin Republicans board of directors, praised Patrick Guerriero's leadership during a difficult period for the gay GOP organization.

Brownson disputes claims by LCR critics that Barron failed to disclose his association with Edwards when the LCR board reviewed his application to become political director. He called Barron a loyal Republican who backed Edwards on the "principled" grounds that Barron could not support someone hostile to gay rights.

Legal challege to military policy

Log Cabin's announcement last week that it had filed suit in federal court against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to challenge the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military added more fuel to critics' claims that Guerriero was going too far in his attacks on the Bush administration, according to a well-connected gay GOP source.

"First they're opposing the president," said the source, in noting LCR's campaign against the FMA. "Now they're suing Donald Rumsfeld. What exactly are they doing that's pro-Republican?"

Brownson said the group is challenging the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy because it undermines national security by preventing qualified Americans from serving in the military at a time when the nation faces serious threats from terrorists. The suit states that it was filed on behalf of Log Cabin members who are currently serving in the military.

Veteran gay Republican activist Carl Schmid of D.C., who served as a Bush delegate at the Republican National Convention in New York, said Guerriero is in the unenviable position of having to retain a working relationship with the Republican Party and gay Republicans.

"I have said they have been a little too strident," Schmid said. "There is an issue of non-endorsement and an issue of working for the president's defeat."

"It will be tough for Patrick, especially if Bush wins," Schmid said.

Guerriero said the organization's handling of Bush's support for the FMA and its decision not to endorse the president has resulted in an outpouring of support from members and gay-supportive GOP leaders across the country.

He said the group's membership has doubled since the controversy erupted. He said the group's income has "quadrupled," enabling it to expand its budget and boost its resources for supporting gay-friendly Republicans running for the House and Senate.

"I don't know of a single person who has provided leadership during challenging times in politics that will please everybody," Guerriero said. "But I do believe that this organization is unified at the board level and at the chapter level."

Guerriero predicted a "healing process" if Bush wins reelection and said he expected it would lead to restored relations with a Bush White House.

"We will still be the largest, most well-funded, most visible gay Republican organization in America," he said. "What would be more embarrassing than to have to work to rebuilding new bridges to the Bush administration would be to be the laughingstock in Washington, D.C., by sitting silently by while gay and lesbian members of the American family were used by Karl Rove in this campaign," he said.

"We would have exactly zero respect from the next Bush administration, if he wins, if we had taken that path," Guerriero said. "It's the single, most simple way to be discounted in Washington, D.C., than to be taken for granted and not speak out."

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