It’s October in July. If you turn on your TV, you’ll note we are already seeing the political ads that usually don’t hit until October. Usually the traditional start of the campaign season is September, but not this year. And here’s the reason and how it affects our community: money.
Money is the mother’s milk to a political campaign. It brings with it an experienced campaign staff and enables meetings, parties, lawn signs, polling, mailings, poll watchers and a media campaign.
As I watched TV-news shows last week, there were at least five different ads for Republican senatorial nominee Pat Toomey, who’s running against Democrat Joe Sestak. That is unheard of. It makes two points. First, it gives him the opportunity to paint Sestak in the minds of the voters. In this case, the tagline in almost all of the commercials is “Sestak, too liberal for Pennsylvania.” As this column said months ago, that line will, over the course of the campaign, morph into something akin to “Sestak, too radical for Pennsylvania.”
The other major statement that this makes is Toomey has money. Lots of it. In the two high-profile statewide races, both Toomey and Tom Corbett, the Republican running for governor against Democrat Dan Onorato, have about $3 for each one of their Democratic counterparts.
This is not good news in a year that is trending against the party in power, namely the Democrats. But let’s get back to money.
Democrats have come to see our community as a campaign cash cow. That in itself is not a bad thing. And in the Philadelphia area, we not only provide cash, we also educate our community on the candidates and get out the vote. In a Pennsylvania statewide race, that is omnipotent. Simply put, a Democrat in a statewide race would find it hard to win without the support of the Philadelphia LGBT community.
So of the two races mentioned thus far, where are we? No doubt we support them, but which is a priority, or are there others? There are.
In this election, there are at least three other races that we in Philadelphia should take a close look at, and maybe make a higher priority.
First, U.S. Rep. Pat Murphy (D-8th Dist.), who is spearheading the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is in a tough reelection race. If he loses, it would be a national loss as well as a local embarrassment. He needs our financial help and our feet on the ground.
Democrat Fern Kaufman is an open lesbian running in Pennsylvania’s 26th legislative district for state representative. She ran two years ago and, as a novice, lost by the slimmest of margins. Her district now has more Democrats than Republicans. If she wins, she would be the first openly LGBT person in the state legislature. How strong is her chance? The Democratic legislative political caucus has targeted her for assistance — a major move. And we should be supporting her. She, as we’ve said before, has all the qualifications an LGBT candidate needs to be a credible, and winning, candidate.
And finally, state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R-12th Dist.). He’s chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and votes against this community at every possible chance. He has a strong opponent in Ruth Damsker and, if funded, her campaign could change the course of LGBT politics in Pennsylvania. Defeating a sitting chairperson would make every Republican in the state take his/her head out of the ground.
There is no doubt that most of us will be voting for these candidates, so that leaves two questions. First, how to mobilize our community to get out the vote, and second, where do we prioritize our funds?
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at [email protected].