Oct 29, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Most gay political activists, like their straight counterparts, will likely be riveted to television sets on election night watching the returns in a presidential race expected to have a major impact on gay rights issues.

But a small cadre of gay election strategists and fund-raisers with the D.C.-based Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund plan to look toward the state houses in Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, the Carolinas and other states, where a growing number of openly gay candidates for state legislatures are said to have a good chance of winning.

“The state legislatures are where the big battles over gay marriage and other issues of importance to our community are taking place,” said Dave DeCicco, the Victory Fund’s spokesperson. “Where there is not a single gay voice in a legislature, our community is not being heard.”

Twenty-eight gay candidates endorsed by the Victory Fund in state legislative races across the country have a good chance of winning, DeCicco said, following campaigns marked by gay-baiting as well as strong support from hometown newspapers and straight allies.

The gay candidates for state legislative seats are expected to bring far better results than the Victory Fund’s efforts to help elect open gays to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The lobby group began this year with high hopes that three gay candidates would win U.S. House seats. But two of the candidates — Democrats Jim Carpenter of Wisconsin and Cathy Woolard of Georgia — lost in primary contests to opposing Democrats.

Democrat Jim Stork of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., abruptly dropped out of his race after winning his party’s nomination and even speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Stork has said a heart-related ailment forced him to end his campaign against Republican incumbent Clay Shaw, who was considered the favorite but potentially beatable.

The three openly gay House incumbents — Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) — are expected to win their re-election bids.

The Victory Fund endorsed Frank and Baldwin. DeCicco said Kolbe, whom the group endorsed in the past, did not apply for an endorsement this year. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay political group, gave Frank, Baldwin and Kolbe a perfect 100 percent rating on gay and AIDS issues for the 108th Congress, which covers 2003 and 2004.

Dreier vs. lesbian candidate
The Victory Fund has also remained on the sidelines in another congressional race with an openly gay candidate. Lesbian Democratic activist Cynthia Matthews is challenging Rep. David Dreier, a 12-term incumbent representing California’s 26th congressional district, located northeast of Los Angeles.

Matthews’ campaign got a boost in news media coverage last month when Dreier, a conservative Republican with a poor voting record on gay rights, refused to disclose his sexual orientation in a radio interview that touched on an outing campaign targetting him.

Instead, Dreier stressed that he voted against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage but declined to say why he voted against the interests of gays in nearly all other cases.

Matthews said political insiders in Dreier’s district have known he is gay for years but never spoke out publicly about it. She said she chose to run against Dreier because she disagrees with him on the issues.

“Here’s a gay congressman who has been in office for 24 years and has voted against his own people,” Matthews said. “It’s not because he’s gay” that she’s critical of him on gay issues, she said. “It’s because he’s a hypocrite.”

trong>Robert Haaland is the leading contender in the race for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Haaland would be the first transgendered person elected to that body if he earns more than 50 percent of the vote in a 22-person race on Tuesday. (Photo by AP)

Matthews said she never submitted the paperwork to seek a Victory Fund endorsement. But she acknowledged that the group would likely have deemed her candidacy non-viable against an incumbent considered to be entrenched in a Republican-majority district.

She said she entered the race before Dreier was outed and never expected to see his sexual orientation surface in the midst of her campaign to unseat him.

Gay baiting in N.C.
In other races, ...