Apr 20, 2007  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Just months into their campaigns, the leading Democratic presidential contenders are lining up support from prominent gay professionals and activists.

At the Blade’s request, the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) identified 27 gay and lesbian leaders who have given early and public support to her White House bid.

Clinton’s backers included political veterans such as Steve Elmendorf, a former Capitol Hill staffer who helped lead John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

“I think our community made enormous steps forward when Bill Clinton was president,” he said, “and I think we’ll make similar strides when she’s president.”

But not all gays who supported President Bill Clinton are backing his wife.

David Mixner, the Democratic activist credited with lining up gay support for Bill Clinton in the early stages of the 1992 presidential campaign, has endorsed former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Mixner, one of 25 gay leaders identified last week by Edwards as campaign supporters, said his endorsement came after he heard the candidate’s plan to exit Iraq.

“In 1992, James Carville, one of Mr. Clinton’s supporters, said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid,’” Mixner said. “In 2008, I will paraphrase that and say, ‘It’s the war, stupid.’”

Edwards also noted in his April 10 list support from current and former leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, National Stonewall Democrats, and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays.

Clinton, meanwhile, included in her April 16 list several Democratic National Committee members, political experts and tennis legend Billie Jean King.

The lists from Clinton and Edwards were heavy on national figures, but a list of gay supporters of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) released to the Blade this week focused on gay professionals and activists in his home state.

Obama’s camp named 19 gay supporters, including Rick Garcia, founder of Equality Illinois, and Richard Wilson, chair of the National Lesbian & Gay Law Association.

Hometown support

Some experts said Obama’s emphasis on Illinois names, like Clinton’s inclusion of several gay New York legislators, showed the campaigns are first securing hometown support.

Dan Pinello, an openly gay City University of New York government professor, said the strategy was expected.

“Hillary Clinton, as a two-term U.S. senator from New York, is going to get a lot of home-state response, whether it’s gay or otherwise,” he said. “Now if she had comparable names of gay supporters from Illinois, that would be a story.”

Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University professor and author of “The Politics of Gay Rights,” agreed.

“It’s a very New York-looking group, and that’s what you’d expect, right?” said Wilcox, who is straight. “If they weren’t with her, that would be a really bad sign.”

But Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign, said the inclusion of local gay professionals and activists, while anticipated, was important.

He said Obama’s list included “people who command enormous respect,” such as longtime activist Michael Bower and Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney.

“I’ve lost more than a handful of fights against those guys,” Solmonese said. “They know how to do politics out there and they’ve done it for a long time. The LGBT community in Chicago is powerful.”

And such grassroots support could prove valuable during primary voting. Pinello said gay voters could decide which Democratic contender gets the nod for 2008.

“It’s a very loyal voting bloc that tends to vote fairly reliably,” he said, “especially in primaries.”

Too early?

But some experts questioned whether the 70 gays listed by Clinton, Edwards and Obama lent their support too early.

Wilcox said the gay professionals and activists might have done better to seek further dialogue and clearer promises from the candidates before granting an endorsement.

“I think any interest group, any social movement, is in a better position if they’re not locked in early,” he said. “You should play hard to get. Let the candidates woo you.”

Labor groups learned that lesson in 1984, Wilcox said, after they chose early on to back Walter Mondale’s campaign against President Ronald Reagan. Once endorsements were given, the groups had “no leverage” with Mondale.

“It seems to me that letting the candidates have a little bit of time to show you what you want them to show you,” Wilcox said, “to say, ‘Persuade me, tell me what in your agenda is good for me,’ would be better.”

Solmonese disagreed. He said gays shouldn’t “sit it out until we’re more properly wooed” when there is opportunity to help shape the presidential campaigns.

“We have incredibly influential, smart people who are involved early on in these campaigns,” he said, “who are saying, ‘I am going to be involved, we will have a seat at the table and our political power will translate into influence ...