Sep 22, 2006  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

With September’s primaries wrapped up, gay rights advocates are focusing on November and hoping to oust anti-gay members of Congress, including Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), while working to elect a new generation of lawmakers.

In interviews this week, the Human Rights Campaign, Log Cabin Republicans and National Stonewall Democrats outlined plans to back several gay-friendly candidates. The groups are also working to combat initiatives to ban gay marriage and to unseat certain lawmakers, with Santorum being the prime target.

“We have the opportunity to defeat the biggest homophobe in the U.S. Senate,” said Marty Rouse, HRC’s national field director. “We need to defeat Rick Santorum.”

Others said the election, which comes at a time of deep political divisions over the war in Iraq, is a chance for progressive candidates to shine.

“What we’re really seeing is the first strong wave of Generation X candidates that are running for public office,” said Stonewall Democrats spokesperson John Marble. “For us, that’s really exciting.”

And in a renewed effort to push equality in state legislatures, organizations also are encouraging their members to take greater interest in local races.

“I think the fight for gay rights in the coming years will be fought as much — or more so — at the state level than the federal level,” said Patrick Sammon, Log Cabin’s executive vice president. “We must invest energy in electing allies at the state level.”

Despite that renewed focus, measures banning same-sex marriage are on the ballot in seven states in November and many observers expect all to pass. Idaho, South Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia and Tennessee are all considering gay marriage bans and conservative groups are actively pushing the measures.

“Wisconsin’s amendment would clearly define marriage as the exclusive union of one man and one woman, preventing state courts from doing in Wisconsin what the court did in Massachusetts,” Vote Yes for Marriage, a group supporting the proposed amendment in Wisconsin, said in a statement. “There is nothing currently preventing a Wisconsin court from making a decision similar to that made by the Massachusetts Supreme Judiciary.”

Watching key races

In addition to the ballot measures, there are several congressional races that are being closely watched by gay rights advocates.

In one, Democrats are working to unseat Santorum, a U.S. senator who has equated homosexuality with incest, polygamy and adultery.

Although the Democratic challenger, Bob Casey Jr., leads Santorum in recent polls, Rouse said the incumbent remains a powerful candidate.

“While the polls look good today, we cannot underestimate the power of Rick Santorum’s bank account, as well as the entire right wing of our country,” Rouse said. “The right wing wants to have Rick Santorum re-elected just as badly as we need to see him defeated.”

Marble said a U.S. House race in Minnesota holds similar symbolic value for gay rights supporters.

Among the candidates for the open seat is State Sen. Michele Bachmann, a conservative who staunchly opposes gay marriage.

In an interview with KKMS 980-AM radio in 2004, Bachmann said that if Minnesota fails to ban same-sex marriage that public school students, “will be required to learn that homosexuality is normal, equal and perhaps you should try it.”

“She’s a rabid anti-gay activist,” Marble said. “She’d make Rick Santorum look like the grand marshal of [a] Gay Pride parade if she were elected.”

Polls show Bachmann leads Democratic candidate Patty Wetterling, mother of Jacob Wetterling, who was famously kidnapped at age 11 in 1989 and never found.

But not all Republicans are in gay activists’ crosshairs.

Sammon identified moderate Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who’s seeking re-election, as a gay-friendly voice in the Senate. Chafee is expected to win his race after a tough primary contest.

“I think it’s really an important race for our community,” Sammon said, “because it’s important to have supporters on both sides of the aisle.”

Advocates are also watching several gubernatorial races.

Marble said gubernatorial races are important because the state leaders play important roles in advancing or halting efforts to ban gay marriage.

“Governors in many states don’t have an official role in ballot campaigns, but they’re very influential,” he said. “It makes a huge difference if we have a pro-gay governor or an anti-gay governor in office.”

Marble said the election of Democratic candidates Mike Hatch in Minnesota, Ted Strickland in Ohio, and the re-election of Edward Rendell in Pennsylvania, would represent major victories for gay rights supporters in those states.

Also important, Rouse said, are state legislative races in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

He said the Iowa and Minnesota contests are noteworthy because Democratic state senators there are countering attempts by House ...