Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, January 18, 2012
LGBTQITSLFA / Olympia National Conservative Group Threatens Republican State Senators: Vote Against Marriage Equality or We'll Drop $250,000 on Your Next Primary Challenger
Posted by Eli Sanders on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 3:55 PM
The threat came today from the National Organization for Marriage.
In response, Washington's Freedom to Marry pointed to the same New York Times article that I pointed to earlier today—the one that talked about New York Republicans who voted for marriage equality getting hundreds of thousands of dollars from gay rights supporters.
Freedom to Marry's spokesperson, Thalia Zapatos, says:
The so-called National Organization for Marriage is all bark and no bite when it comes to threats against the freedom to marry in Washington state. Any Republican lawmaker in Washington who stands up for loving and committed same-sex couples will be treated as a hero, just as bipartisan support has been applauded in New York and elsewhere in America by gay and non-gay communities alike. Those of us who support marriage have demonstrated time and again that we’ll be loyal to elected officials who make the politically smart and morally correct choice in extending the freedom to marry to gay couples.
The Republican state senators who NOM is trying to intimidate? I wrote about them in this week's Stranger.
1
Let's set up a grassroots fundraiser against NOM. Each citizen donates $20.12? How about it, WA United For Marriage?
2
Looks like it is a bidding war on our Congressional votes...every thing the American system stands for!
3
Figure out a way to set up an eBay-style bidding war, with deep-pockets progressive one-percenters teaming up with no-pockets just-folks à la @1. What could be sweeter than bankrupting fucking NOM?
4
How about a fucking law barring out of state money in our local state elections?
Seriously, fuck these people. Stay in your own goddamn shit holes and let us decide what we want on our end.
I wonder if, in our land of lots of lots of billionaires in Washington, if any would be willing to challenge and say he'll match or double the National Organization for Bigots?
Seriously, fuck these people. Stay in your own goddamn shit holes and let us decide what we want on our end.
I wonder if, in our land of lots of lots of billionaires in Washington, if any would be willing to challenge and say he'll match or double the National Organization for Bigots?
5
NOM always drops huge numbers so the press picks up their talking points. They almost never follow through on their threats. Way to regurgitate their talking point Eli. You gave NOM exactly the publicity they were looking for.
6
Fuck 'em. Let NOM throw a few tens of millions of their donor's money down the hole, then watch while these incumbents wipe the floor with whomever bat-shit crazy challenger dares take NOM's money to go up against them.
7
I'm a little confused; at what point does this sort of behavior become (illegal) bribery? When they promise money to the candidates themselves, instead of their campaigns?
Not being facetious here (although I normally am), I legitimately do not understand the distinction.
Not being facetious here (although I normally am), I legitimately do not understand the distinction.
8
@7 Yep, when it hits their own pockets, that's pretty much it. Personally, I'd demand at least four times that much from NOM to ensure my vote.
Romney's campaign is basically a play on how a billionaire should just be able to buy his way in to office and not have to worry about the electoral process. Welcome to the post-Citizens United USA.
I find myself objecting less to the concept that politicians are for sale than I do to the fact that the price, especially in state or local elections, is so damned low. Grief, people. Read Ayn Rand. Get what you're worth.
Romney's campaign is basically a play on how a billionaire should just be able to buy his way in to office and not have to worry about the electoral process. Welcome to the post-Citizens United USA.
I find myself objecting less to the concept that politicians are for sale than I do to the fact that the price, especially in state or local elections, is so damned low. Grief, people. Read Ayn Rand. Get what you're worth.
9
Hey Eli - how about using your journalistic wile to check into the status of the creation of a searchable database of R71 signees.
Whosigned.org was supposed to do it, but the signatures are nowhere in sight.
It would be really nice to be able to have some rational, non-threatening conversations with the people who signed the R71 referendum petitions to get them to see why signing an expected referendum petition against marriage equality is a simple matter of justice, no? (yes)
Whosigned.org was supposed to do it, but the signatures are nowhere in sight.
It would be really nice to be able to have some rational, non-threatening conversations with the people who signed the R71 referendum petitions to get them to see why signing an expected referendum petition against marriage equality is a simple matter of justice, no? (yes)
11
@8:
So, you're saying it's basically a remake of "Citizen Kane"? In that case I can't wait to find out who's "Rosebud"!
So, you're saying it's basically a remake of "Citizen Kane"? In that case I can't wait to find out who's "Rosebud"!
12
@8 I would prefer Eli use his journalistic skills to show other times NOM lied about dropping huge amounts of money in states just to get press. Or how when NOM did drop huge amounts of money in one Iowa race they lost anyway because voters really care about jobs and the economy more than NOM's hate politics.
13
Also, just to do the math here. Assuming NOM is telling the truth (which they almost never are) they are only pledging $10,000 per campaign (assuming 25 senators vote yes). That's nothing. Gays can out do that for any Senator that pledges their vote for equality easily.
14
10k in a state race is a pretty significant contribution. I doubt the average state legislator raises a large multiple of that in a typical cycle. And they wouldn't do that in every race - some are going to vote against, no matter what. Some are going to vote for, no matter what. Slog readers could pretty easily match that, I suspect, if they put their money where their values are (I know, not everyone is lucky enough to have spare money to donate. But, lots of people can come up with 10 or 25 bucks, along with a nice message to send the legislator in question.)
Figuring out when and how NOM lied about these donations would be a *great* thing to do, but so would hyping the local and national organizations that can fight on the other side, and the legislators who need a little help deciding what their values actually are. What's happened in New York is *exactly* the way to work this broken system. Letting conservative lawmakers know that you disagree with them about a bunch of other stuff, but as long as they're willing to stand up for basic rights like this, you're willing to help ensure they stay in office another cycle - that's a great way to remove this particular issue from the liberal/conservative disagreement axis. Which it shouldn't be part of (and isn't in a lot of other countries).
I contributed a little to WA United after reading Ed Murray's appeal earlier in Slog - I followed the simple link, and dug my credit card out of my pocket. I'd like to contribute to some of these R and D lawmakers who are on the fence, along with a message about how I'm really interested in seeing this become law. But, if somebody is willing to do that research for me, and link to the donation pages, well, it's a lot more likely I'm going to take time out of my busy day to follow through on that.
More...
Figuring out when and how NOM lied about these donations would be a *great* thing to do, but so would hyping the local and national organizations that can fight on the other side, and the legislators who need a little help deciding what their values actually are. What's happened in New York is *exactly* the way to work this broken system. Letting conservative lawmakers know that you disagree with them about a bunch of other stuff, but as long as they're willing to stand up for basic rights like this, you're willing to help ensure they stay in office another cycle - that's a great way to remove this particular issue from the liberal/conservative disagreement axis. Which it shouldn't be part of (and isn't in a lot of other countries).
I contributed a little to WA United after reading Ed Murray's appeal earlier in Slog - I followed the simple link, and dug my credit card out of my pocket. I'd like to contribute to some of these R and D lawmakers who are on the fence, along with a message about how I'm really interested in seeing this become law. But, if somebody is willing to do that research for me, and link to the donation pages, well, it's a lot more likely I'm going to take time out of my busy day to follow through on that.
15
Pardon my cynicism but this feels like a pinkwash con ahead of the 2012 general, trying to plant the seed that the GOP contains members unafraid to buck NOM and therefore is not 100% full of anti-gay bigots - end objective: peel a few percentage points off the straight-D ticket among gays who might otherwise be demographically aligned with the GOP base (rich, white, male, and/or old.)
I'm glad some R state senators are pro-marriage equality, whatever their reasons - but until the national GOP drops its anti-gay planks or the WA Republicans formally break with the national party, I will never support them. No quarter with bigots, or those who affiliate with bigots.
I'm glad some R state senators are pro-marriage equality, whatever their reasons - but until the national GOP drops its anti-gay planks or the WA Republicans formally break with the national party, I will never support them. No quarter with bigots, or those who affiliate with bigots.
16
I keep hearing that NOM is running out of money. They're bigots and assholes, and hopefully every politician here knows that.
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