Seven Hot Senate Races

Seven of this year’s most competitive U.S. Senate contests arehigh-stakes races for the gay community. Five incumbent Democrats with very good ratings on the Human Rights Campaign’s legislative scorecard of gay concerns are up for re-election. In most cases these pro-gay lawmakers face opponents who rarely support the gay position on any issue. In two other contests, incumbent Republican senators who scored zero on the HRC scale are facing more gay-friendly opponents. (The HRC scorecard includes votes and co-sponsorships on employment rights, hate crimes, AIDS funding, and other issues affecting gay people.)

Given the Democrats’ 51-49 control of the Senate, there is much at stake in any Senate race this year, because any one of them could determine whether the Democrats keep control of the upper chamber, or if it goes back to the GOP. For gay voters, the future of such issues as hate crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act could be affected by the outcome of the Senate elections.

Gay political groups are already getting involved in these seven and other Senate races. HRC has endorsed the Democratic candidate in each of these races, though it supports Republicans in other contests. Stonewall Democrats have endorsed Max Cleland in Georgia and expects to formally support the other Democratic nominees soon. Stonewall’s executive director, Chad Johnson, notes that now that his group has formed a political action committee, “We hope to follow our endorsements with PAC contributions.” Log Cabin Republicans, who provide financial and other assistance to a number of GOP candidates, have endorsed none of the Republican candidates on this list. However, if one or more of these GOP standard-bearers reaches out to gay voters, Log Cabin may consider an endorsement.

All of these races are toss-ups or are leaning slightly in one candidate’s direction. This underscores how competitive the battle for control of the Senate is this year, and it suggests that each race will be hard-fought right up until November 5.

• Minnesota. Fiery liberal Paul Wellstone (D) almost always gets a perfect HRC rating. And he not only votes with us, but he was speaking out for us long ago-even before 1993, when he addressed the gay march on Washington. Wellstone has also aggressively confronted opponents of ENDA at Senate hearings. His opponent, former Minneapolis Mayor Norm Coleman (R), may try to appeal to gay voters, but so far, says one gay GOPer, “There have been mixed signals coming out of Coleman’s camp.”

• Georgia. Incumbent Max Cleland (D) has a 100 percent HRC rating, not the most comfortable stance for a Deep South lawmaker. Stonewall has already endorsed him and its political action committee will send him money. Cleland’s likely opponent, U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R), rates a zero with HRC.

• Louisiana. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) is another Deep Southerner with an impressive 100 HRC rating. She’s appeared at dinners and meetings for gay groups in her state, which has a strong social conservative movement. Landrieu’s opponent is not yet a done deal. The first GOPer to announce, U.S. Rep. John Cooksey (R), earned an HRC zero. Another GOPer in the race, state Rep. Tony Perkins (no relation to the Psycho star) is way to the right on most social issues-he’s the author of the state’s “Covenant Marriage” law that lets straight couples opt for divorce-difficult matrimony. But Log Cabiners play a surprisingly active role in the New Orleans GOP, so if moderate state Elections Commissioner Suzie Haik Terrell (R) gets into the race, she might tempt some gay voters.

• Missouri. Sen. Jean Carnahan (D), the widow of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan (D), defeated John Ashcroft (R) in 2000. Her late husband had a so-so record on gay issues, but she rates a respectable 80 percent with HRC. Carnahan’s opponent, former U.S. Rep. Jim Talent (R), had a 10 percent HRC rating in his last term in Congress.

• Iowa. Sen. Tom Harkin (D) is another HRC 100-percenter. His opponent, Congressman Greg Ganske (R), has a very poor 17 percent HRC rating. While Log Cabin has worked with Ganske on funding for the Ryan White AIDS program, the gay GOPers have not endorsed him in the past. Harkin always has a close race-he won by 52 percent in 1996 and 54 percent in 1990-in this Midwestern swing state.

• New Hampshire. Incumbent Bob Smith (R) is the Senate’s Jesse Helms (R) wanna-be. He’s not only an HRC zero, he’s made a habit of opposing gay nominees for federal posts, including James Hormel as ambassador to Luxembourg and Robert Raben as Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs. Granite State voters have two chances to dump Smith. U.S. Rep. John Sununu (R) is opposing Smith in the Sept. 10 Republican primary. Sununu also rates a zip from HRC, but he’s not outspokenly antigay. On Nov. 5, the Democratic candidate will be Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who has probably signed more pro-gay legislation than any governor in the nation, including a repeal of the state’s ban on adoptions by gay couples and a civil rights measure that includes sexual orientation.

• Colorado. Sen. Wayne Allard (R) is another GOPer with a negative record on gay issues, voting against us on every HRC issue. His foe is former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland (D), who promises to be more responsive to the gay community.

Gay Survey Shows “Disconnect” on Issues

A recent survey revealed some startling divergences between the priorities of leading gay organizations in Washington and the gay rank and file. Marriage was the number one issue for 46 percent of respondents, followed by employment rights with 16 percent, hate crimes legislation with 9 percent, and more gay representation in government with 7 percent.

These numbers are important because they suggest there is a significant disconnect between the major goals of the leading gay rights organizations in Washington and the average gay voter across the country. In the nation’s capital, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) shares the spotlight with hate crimes legislation at the top of the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) agenda. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) is pushing for a hate crimes law, but not ENDA (because it doesn’t include transgendered people, not because employment rights are a low priority).

The accuracy of the survey, conducted by GLCensus Partners, has been questioned by critics, who contend that because it was a survey of self-identified gay respondents who have access to computers, it may not be representative of the community at large. But Jeff Garber, who founded GLCensus as a partnership with two respected research groups, Syracuse University and the Zogby polling firm, points out that traditional polling methods are ill-suited to the gay community-the pollster must ask thousands of potential respondents whether they are gay or lesbian, which many people prefer not to divulge to a stranger.

In addition, the GLCensus pool of respondents was 69 percent Democratic, 8 percent Republican, 13 percent independent, and 2 percent each Green and Libertarian. This tracks with the 2000 exit poll, which showed Gore with 70 percent of the gay vote, Bush with 25 percent, and Nader with 5 percent.

In any case, whether or not the results are precise, the survey has something to tell us-something that’s difficult to hear because it has no easy solution. If our national gay organizations are spending their time and our money on issues of secondary concern to most of us, then perhaps they should consider a shift in emphasis. Maybe they should downplay ENDA and hate crimes and ratchet up their efforts to achieve same-sex marriage or Vermont-style civil unions throughout the nation.

There’s only one catch. Perhaps because they’re in Washington and pay attention to such things, HRC, NGLTF, and other groups are well aware that marriage issues are by far the most difficult for gay groups to push in Congress. Indeed, when gay marriage comes up, our side is generally on the defensive, trying-mostly futilely-to prevent passage of legislation to limit marriage to heterosexual couples, as was the case in 1996 when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress, winning by 342 to 67 in the House of Representatives. More recently, these gay groups began to monitor a proposed constitutional amendment that would write a mixed-gender definition of marriage into the basic law of the land.

So while the GLCensus survey seems to reinforce Log Cabin leader Rich Tafel’s doubts about how much good ENDA would do, it also presents national gay leaders with a difficult alternative. If they abandon or lessen their emphasis on ENDA, they will lose the ground they have won for gay job rights, which get high marks in national public opinion surveys and have strong support among Capitol Hill Democrats and a few Republicans. The same goes for hate crimes legislation. If HRC, NGLTF, and other groups take up same-sex marriage, or the less divisive civil unions, as their top goal-as the survey implicitly suggests-then they will very likely postpone a gay victory in Congress for decades to come.

The point is not that the gay respondents to the survey were wrong in their priorities. As gay people become more accepted in society, it is only natural that we experience less discrimination and feel less compelled to place the highest priority on actions to prevent it. Moreover, support for marriage rights may indicate a longing for stability and membership in the wider society that could serve many of us well.

However, to continue to move toward equal treatment for gay people, it will be necessary to win one or more high-profile national victories. We can do it with ENDA and hate crimes. We cannot do it anytime soon with marriage rights.