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05/24/2012
WA equality combatants wanted mad rush, are settling for slow trickle
While acknowledging that the National Organization For Marriage/Preserve Marriage Washington team will likely get the 120,577 signatures they need to put marriage on the ballot (because most any campaign can), Laurel Ramseyer notes a compelling facet of that current effort. Namely, that the campaign is well behind the deadlines that NOM so desperately wanted to achieve:
NOM’s big cheese himself set the goal of turning in 200,000 Referendum 74 signatures on May 6th, one month before the deadline.
“I want the headline above the fold that says ‘R-74 gets 200,000 signatures a month early!’. I want to shut up our opponents. …Because our opponents – this is a battle, and our opponents need to be demoralized,” Chris Plante told a group of volunteers in March. Plante is a Rhode Island-based NOM employee sent to Washington to act as PMW’s deputy campaign director.
“I’ve been saying, on May 6th I’d love to put out a press release saying, the human part of me says ‘nah-nah-na-na-nah’, we got the signatures,” Plante told volunteers at a similar event in April. “Something to the effect of ‘Washington will not stand for messing with marriage’.”
It’s now three weeks later and not only has NOM-PMW failed to meet their goal of filing 200,000 signatures on May 6th, but it appears unlikely that they will even have 200,000 signatures to file by the June 6th deadline.
Preserve Marriage Washington Misses Own Referendum 74 Signature Goal [PHB]
I've been noting the encouragingly low uptick as well. For weeks now, the NOM/PMW team have been enthusiastically tweeting and Facebook this or that milestone, feigning thrills over whatever watermark they've achieved on a particular day. But every time, I'm kind of like, "Really? That's it?" Because the numbers are certainly more stagnant than we've seen both in other marriage states and in other Washington state campaigns.
Does this mean there is a lack of enthusiasm that will give us an easy win? No. A win is not inevitable in the state; ease is not even a question.
However, it is encouraging to know that Chris "gay parents use their kids like 'an accessory to put in my purse'" Plante was denied his chance to "nah-nah-na-na-nah" us. Gloating about (un)civil discrimination is so unbecoming.
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