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11/20/2009
What the hell is Brian Brown smoking?!
The National Organization For Marriage's Brian Brown begins this week's email missive with the line:
"The great victories in Maine and New York-23 for pro-marriage forces continue to reverberate up and down the Eastern Seaboard."
Only problem: Brian's side won nothing in NY-23! Yes, they were able to get the more progressive (if Republican) Dede Scozzafava out of the race. But NOM and crew still lost, and did so to the tune of $112,736.75. Despite their focused efforts and rabidly anti-gay fliers in support of Doug Hoffman, they were forced to spend election night watching NY-23 turn Democratic for the first time since the Civil War!
Yes, NOM might have narrowly (and expensively) duped Mainers into supporting civil unfairness and inequality (a disturbing, un-American goal that never had the chance of being a "victory," by the way). But when it came to changing the game in New York, the efficacy of their extremely offensive campaign tactics have not been emboldened: They have instead been called into question!
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**After the jump, you'll find Brian's full email. Be sure to note his characterization of the D.C. council as being "men with hardened hearts," despite the fact that (a) the council is not all male, and (b) they are the ones who are standing against heartless attempts to destroy other people's love. Also notice the reference to Catholicism, which we have long known to be the driving faith of NOM:
(*Note: Our NOM emails are addressed to "I-Could-Not-Stand-Against-Your-Agenda" because we signed up for them under the name "I-Could-Not-Stand-Against-Your-Agenda Any-More-Strongly." We're sure they'll still count us as a "supporter")
Your thoughts
But they did win in NY. Didn't they replace a pro-marriage candidate with one who will never support gay marriage -- even if he's not their candidate?
Posted by: Tim | Nov 20, 2009 6:54:04 PM
Well that's the convenient line they're trying to work, Tim. But don't kid yourself into believing they are AT ALL happy about a Democrat winning this race. They invested over 100k (that we know of) to put Doug Hoffman into office, and spent considerable resources on the same. It didn't pay off for NOM.
I'd be willing to concede that they didn't outright lose. But they certainly didn't win.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Nov 20, 2009 7:56:46 PM
Another point, Tim: Upstate NY is very conservative. When Kirsten Gillibrand was dependent on only her House district, she was also against marriage equality (or at least not for it). But her position evolved as soon as her voter base did.
There is the chance that Owens (who publicly support civil unions and full rights) would/will eventually do the same. There is not even a slim chance that Hoffman will ever change his STRONG condemnations.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Nov 20, 2009 8:23:09 PM
I agree they are not happy Owens won, and Owens is clearly better than Hoffman on gay issues, though neither supports marriage equality. But electing a pro marriage equality Republican to Congress would have been a big step forward. Are there currently any? It's a partial victory for them, they stoped the most pro gay candidate, but did fail to elect the most anti gay candidate.
Posted by: Ken | Nov 21, 2009 3:12:39 AM
Jeremy,
I think Tim is right.
They view this differently than just a congressional district vote. While they hoped Hoffman would win, even before the vote they stated that it didn't really matter. But to NOM and other right-wing extremists, this was never about which party would win in this NY-23.
Their effort was to diminish or drive out from the Republican Party anyone who was RINO and especially those who were pro-marriage equality. They were successful.
The victory for them is that Scozzafava was a shoe-in. It was a no-brainer that she would take the district... until they leveled a nation-wide attack on her character. So marriage equality lost.
By every measure that the anti-gays care about, they won. They aren't twisting this one, they really believe it.
Posted by: Timothy Kincaid | Nov 23, 2009 2:59:23 PM
I think there's room to disagree. But for all of the reasons already stated, I refuse to give NOM a "win" here.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Nov 23, 2009 3:29:28 PM
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