Nov 08, 2006   | COMMENTS     

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He noted social conservatives maintain a strong ally in the White House.

 “President Bush is there,” he said. “He won’t sign any gay legislation, and I doubt he will sign a hate crimes bill.”

Jo Wyrick, executive director of gay partisan group National Stonewall Democrats, said lawmakers would work to develop bipartisan proposals.

“It is only Democratic leadership that can deliver the bipartisan efforts required to pass fair-minded legislation in Congress,” she said in a prepared statement. “We are already working with our members to help Democrats use their newly won position to fulfill the potential of our party and the promise it has given to our families.”

LaBarbera said gay activists should not expect all newly elected Democrats to support gay issues. He noted that new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from San Francisco, might make moderate Democrats uncomfortable.

“I would think that hate crimes would be one of the top items on Pelosi’s agenda,” he said. “But you can’t take for granted that all these new Democrats will be voting with her on that.”

Political aftershocks

But other observers said Democrats could produce a united momentum going forward.

And with the ousting of anti-gay figures like Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Pinello said there should be little divisive anti-gay rhetoric to obstruct legislative debates.

“Those kinds of voices, if not entirely absent, will be much more diminished,” he said. “Hopefully, people like Santorum who remain in either chamber will think twice now about being public about their homophobic attitudes.”

Patrick Sammon, executive vice president of gay partisan group Log Cabin Republicans, blasted social conservatives like Santorum for practically handing Democrats control of Congress.

“Our party’s congressional leaders drove over the bridge to nowhere and left their principles behind,” he said in a prepared statement. “The Republicans lost touch with the issues that matter to mainstream voters.”

“The social extremists have taken our party off track. They’re largely to blame for what happened in this election.”

Solmonese said the power shift that occurred Nov. 7 was so extreme that its effects could reach beyond Congress.

“I think that we’re in a very different day today, because we’re beyond the midterm election. We’re in the final two years of an administration that has been hostile to GLBT Americans from day one, but we’re also now one day after an election where the American people sent a very clear message that divisive and discriminatory rhetoric has no place in electoral politics.

“Does that message resonate with the White House?” he said. “That remains to be seen.”

Gay candidates victorious

Gay activists — who welcomed the re-election of gay U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) — praised the victories of other openly gay candidates across the country.

Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, said 67 candidates his organization endorsed were elected to office.

“This is the tipping point for openly gay candidates,” he said in a statement. “We’re proving that well-prepared candidates matched with committed donors means gays and lesbians can move from having a stake in policy to actually making policy.”

Among the winners were five gay candidates in the Victory Fund’s so-called “Seven Races to Watch.”

According to preliminary results, lesbian Virginia Linder won a seat on the Oregon Supreme Court. She will sit alongside Rives Kistler, a gay man who joined the court in 2003.

Other winners included North Carolina’s first openly gay state legislator, Julia Boseman, gay lawyer Ken Keechl for a county commission seat in Florida, and gay activist Gary Fitzsimmons for Dallas County clerk in Texas.

Doug Milliken, a financial manager and former Wall Street executive, won a close race to become the treasurer in Arapahoe County, Colo.

But not all candidates won. Tina Taviano lost the sheriff’s race in Allen County, Ind. And returns showed Stephen Padilla, the gay mayor of San Diego suburb Chula Vista, losing his re-election bid.

Victory Fund endorsed 88 candidates, including 55 non-incumbents and 33 incumbents.

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