Ultimate Slap-fight Challenge: Bauer vs. Sammon!

The President of the Log Cabin Republicans, Patrick Sammon, has offered a response to yesterday's op-ed by Gary Bauer, who insisted that the GOP should spend less time formulating policy and running on principle and more time scaring people about teh gheys!!! 

Both articles are worth reading, but I take issue with this analysis:

In 2006, the five Republicans who used marriage most prominently as a wedge issue all lost. Sens. Rick Santorum (Pa.) and George Allen (Va.), Reps. John Hostetler (Ind.) [sic] and Anne Northup (Ky.), and Ken Blackwell (in his race for Ohio governor) tried to win with anti-gay campaign tactics. They didn’t necessarily lose because of their tactics, but these tactics didn’t prevent them from losing, as they might have a decade ago.

Leaving aside the fact that it was surprising that any Republicans won in 2006, let's look at these elections one by one. 

Sen. Rick Santorum - Perhaps DPUD would have a better handle on this, but as I understand Pennsylvania, it's pretty amazing that someone as conservative as Santorum got elected in the first place is amazing.  In a year like 2006, and running against the son of a popular governor (Kentuckians know a little bit about this), this loss isn't too surprising.

Sen. George Allen - I think this razor-thin loss was more about macaca than marriage.

Rep. John Hostettler - I don't know much about Indiana politics, but Hostettler was beat by Rep. Brad Ellsworth, who supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. 

Rep. Anne Northup - Northup represented a D+2 district that is basically just Louisville.  In a year like 2006, and with an unpopular and indicted Republican Governor at the helm, it was bound to happen.

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (who was running for OH Governor - The Ohio GOP has been in shambles for years.  Additionally Republican Gov. Bob Taft had recently been convicted of impeachable ethics offenses. 

Weak. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:38 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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