Jon Hoadley, president of National Stonewall Democrats. His group this
week announced its endorsement of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack
Obama. (Blade file photo by Henry Linser)
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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, July 25, 2008
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was poised to receive the
backing from the National Stonewall Democrats Thursday when the
organization planned to announce its endorsement for the candidate.
The gay Democratic group informed the Blade about its plans for endorsement Tuesday in an embargoed statement.
The board of directors for the National Stonewall Democrats unanimously
decided to support Obama with a voice vote about three weeks ago,
according to John Marble, spokesperson for the organization.
In the statement provided by the gay Democratic group, Obama said he was grateful for the support.
“Their focus on grassroots organizing is so important as we work to engage all Americans in our campaign for change,” he said.
Jon Hoadley, executive director for the gay Democratic group, said in a
statement that Obama won the support of his organization because of
“his advocacy for pro-equality positions and his strong record of
leadership.”
The embargoed statement commended Obama for advocating for an Employee
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) with gender identity protections, greater
HIV prevention funding, the passage of hate crimes legislation and the
repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the
Defense of Marriage Act.
Marble said Stonewall waited three weeks after the board made its
decision to announce the endorsement because the organization wanted to
engage with chapter leaders across the country.
“Taking three extra weeks to prepare those people on the ground to be
ready to do that hard work of going door to door and calling people is
going to be a better benefit to our organization and to our endorsed
candidate than had we just sent out a release,” he said.
The National Stonewall Dem-ocrats are making their endorsement for the
presumptive Democratic nominee relatively later in the election season
than they did in the last presidential election. In 2004, the
organization threw its support behind then-Democratic presidential
nominee John Kerry in April.
Marble said the National Stonewall Democrats took longer to endorse the
Democratic candidate for president this election season because 2004
was a more “compressed election cycle than we’re in now.”
He noted that while Kerry faced limited competition as the Democratic
primary played out in 2004, Obama and Clinton this year competed for
the nomination until the last primary contests in June.
Marble said the group offered its endorsement “with accountability as
well” and said the organization will continue to press Obama on gay
issues during the campaign.
While gay Democrats rally behind their party’s presidential candidate,
the National Log Cabin Republicans have yet to make a decision on
whether or not to endorse Republican presidential candidate John McCain
in his bid for the White House.
The gay GOP group did not endorse President Bush in his bid for re-election in 2004.
Patrick Sammon, Log Cabin president, said his organization had yet to
make a decision on the McCain endorsement because leaders are
“continuing to assess the situation.” The organization is getting input
from members and is having discussions with the campaign, he said.
Sammon said he did not want to give a timetable for when Log Cabin
would make a decision. The organization did not make its decisions in
2000 and 2004 until after the Republican National Convention. He said
the process is on a similar track this time.
While gay political organizations make their decisions on whom to
endorse for president, a recent poll is showing that Obama is trouncing
McCain in support among gay Americans.
Comparatively, among all registered voters, the Democratic candidate
leads with 44 percentage points compared to the GOP candidate’s 35
percentage points.
Marble said Obama’s lead in the polls shows that the candidate is in a
stronger position with the gay community than previous presidential
nominees.
“I expect that 60 percent number to be a baseline and to go higher,” he
said. “I think there’s a good chunk of undecideds that are still out
there.”
But Sammon said he was skeptical of the numbers in the poll.
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