Apr 09, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

They bring in votes from key states and promote the visibility of minority groups. They reinforce candidates’ values and shore up the campaign’s image. They can make or break a presidential ticket.

They are the vice-presidential contenders, and in what is expected to be a close race for the White House, they have taken on an especially prominent role this year.

Political experts don’t anticipate a decision from Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on a running mate for weeks, but gay advocacy groups have started comparing the voting records behind the names buzzing around the Beltway.

Four men are known to have been interviewed by Kerry representatives for the job, the New York Times reported this week. All four — Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Iowa Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack — have received high marks for supporting gay rights.

All four at one time or another have denounced a federal amendment to ban gay marriage, and all generally support sexual orientation nondiscrimination policies — in harmony with Kerry’s own views. But a closer look at their records, as well as those of other rumored candidates, provides some distinguishing characteristics that could suggest who actively each might advocate on behalf of gay rights.

“Each one of the four brings a different set of political and cultural experiences to the campaign, which are all relevant,” said Winnie Stachelberg, political director for the Human Rights Campaign. “The community knows them as forceful voices for equality, and with this choice, Senator Kerry is grappling with one of the most difficult decisions he will have to make during his campaign.”

The name circulated most often in political circles is John Edwards, the North Carolina senator who was Kerry’s most formidable primary challenger. Edwards’ campaign charisma to mount a campaign that impressed many insiders. In early roundtable discussions regarding gay civil rights, Edwards was one of the first candidates to firmly state his opposition to gay marriage.

But he also said he believed in the “equal dignity of all Americans,” and therefore, supported partnership benefits for gay men and lesbians in long-term relationships. With views paralleling Kerry’s both in the Senate — they both received a 100 percent pro-gay score from the HRC — and on the hustings, Edwards endorsed states’ rights to create civil unions.

“If states establish these civil unions,” he said, “then the federal government should respect their decision and offer benefits along these lines.”

But Edwards’ voting record is much leaner than Kerry’s after less than one term in the Senate, and he did distinguish himself from Kerry on the Defense of Marriage Act.

In one primary debate, Edwards praised Kerry for being one of a handful of senators who voted against the 1996 measure, later signed into law by President Clinton. But when asked about that comment by ABC’s George Stephanopoulus, Edwards said he agreed with the portion of DOMA that would prevent one state from forcing another state into recognizing gay marriages performed there.

Edwards also took then-frontrunner Howard Dean to task during the primary for saying he intended to push the debate in Southern states beyond “guns, God and gays.” Edwards faulting the former Vermont governor for ducking a “values debate” that he said is important to the region.

Gephardt has personal stake
Kerry’s vice-presidential search committee, headed by friend and former chief executive officer for the Fannie May Foundation, James A. Johnson, in Washington, has also interviewed Gephardt — another congressional colleague with a pro-gay voting record who opposes same-sex marriage. Gephardt’s lesbian daughter Chrissy took an active role in his presidential campaign.

“We are proud members of PFLAG, and we’re very proud of our daughter, Chrissy Gephardt,” the congressman said at a recent dinner for the Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays. “I am ashamed when top leaders of this country and even the president of the United States suggest to the people of this country that there should be an amendment to the Constitution to take away rights from people rather than giving rights to people.”

But Gephardt’s longtime support for gay rights has not translated into a high priority on gay rights legislations, which languished in the House even when Gephardt was majority leader.

Jeff Trammell, who was Al Gore’s liaison to gay voters in 2000 and was officially named this week to a similar role in the Kerry campaign, said his candidate would pay particular attention to each of the prospective vice president’s views on civil ...