Feb 06, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Even though he’s 2,500 miles away from his partner and their Washington, D.C., residence, Mark Seifert feels at home in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, where Democratic presidential candidate and retired Gen. Wesley Clark has commandeered him to serve as his gay liaison. The pace may not be as fast as Beltway life, but Southern living appeals to Seifert, who is from Birmingham.

“There are plenty of people down here from New York and graduates of Harvard and Yale who want a little more edge to their staff, but I’ve had enough edge in my life,” Seifert said from a bustling campaign headquarters in the heart of the sleepy Southern city. “When you’re in the law, you have a tendency to tear things down. When you’re here, you want to treat people the way you want to be treated, and you can’t mistake nice for uneducated or dispassionate.”

The lawyer in Seifert likes Clark’s straightforward delivery style. Seifert describes Clark as willing to give an answer instead of “canned jargon.” The Southerner in Seifert appreciates the “down-home goodness” of the decorated Army commander and his ability to “make you feel as if you are the only person who matters in the room.”

A little more than a year ago, Seifert said he decided to get involved in the 2004 campaign, inspired by a desire to help evict President Bush from the White House. At the time, he was working as a litigation attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. Seifert sat down with his partner of 11 years, Jeff Dygert, and told him he wanted to take a direct role in working to defeat Bush.

He began doing volunteer work with the Democratic Party, gathering his own intelligence about the various candidates for president. Then Clark emerged on the radar screen, and for Seifert, as the candidate of choice. He moved to Clark’s D.C. headquarters.

Two months later, and with Dygert’s blessing, Seifert relocated to Little Rock — on what many pundits might call a Dean-esque pilgrimage — and told Clark’s staff he would accept any post, but could specialize in gay issues. The Clark campaign quickly appointed him to devise Clark’s strategy in capturing the gay vote.

“You can’t see politics in any better way than being in the ‘belly of the beast,’” said colleague and friend Tom Sheridan, a D.C.-based political consultant. “After driving to a 25-member campaign office in Little Rock and settling into a position of importance, you could say he’s done very well in experiencing politics firsthand.”

Clark has been running behind Senators John Kerry and John Edwards in most polls, but eked out a narrow victory in Tuesday’s Oklahoma primary.

Clark’s positions on many gay issues are not discernible from rivals Kerry, Edwards and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. But Seifert said Clark is dedicated to “ending the second-class citizenship of gay and lesbian people.” He vows to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, strengthen federal protections against hate crimes and extend certain benefits traditionally reserved for heterosexual couples to gay couples, though he stops short of supporting same-sex marriage.

Clark has indicated that he would ask the nation’s military leaders to review the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and said he would provide “leadership” in changing the policy.

Seifert argues that Clark’s approaches to fulfilling certain gay voter objectives set him apart from his competitors.

For example, he noted that Clark has proposed allowing states the option to expand Medicaid to those living with HIV who still work, but cannot afford the expensive drugs. In Clark’s view, this would address the “Catch-22 in the current Medicaid system “that requires HIV sufferers to become disabled before they can access medication that prevents that incapacity.”