Posted on 11/18/2007 4:16:44 AM PST by personalaccts
Did Dems avoid gay candidate? Concern about voter reaction may have led to apparent snub (The party of "tolerance")
MARK JOHNSON mjohnson@charlotteobserver.com Former Wall Street investor Jim Neal of Chapel Hill announced he was running for the U.S. Senate.
N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro declared a week later that she was not running for the U.S. Senate.
Both are Democrats. Guess which one received a phone call from U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads the Democratic Party's efforts to recruit Senate candidates?
Schumer and the national Democrats, who boast of their party's inclusiveness, effectively ignored Neal, who is openly gay. After he announced his campaign in October, he telephoned Schumer. The call wasn't returned. Neal was the first Democrat to step up to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Instead, Schumer, of New York, called Hagan, who had taken herself out of the race, and encouraged her to jump back in. She later did.
Schumer's action could be explained by the fact that Hagan, 54, is a known quantity, a nine-year veteran of the state Senate and co-chair of the powerful appropriations committee. Her gender likely would help her in a contest against another woman, Sen. Dole.
Neal, however, falls into a coveted category of candidates: self-funder, someone who will sink a chunk of his own wealth into the race. Such candidates typically get at least a courtesy meeting from their party's national political committees, particularly in the state where former U.S. Sen. John Edwards showed that an unknown with a lot of money can succeed.
Neal, 50, and others suggest that the fact that he is gay drove the actions of the Democratic Senate committee and other leaders of a party that criticizes Republicans for their anti-gay rights platform.
Schumer and the Democratic senatorial committee declined to comment for this story, spokesman Matt Miller said.
Voter motivation
Hagan said Neal's candidacy had no impact on her decision, and no one who encouraged her to run mentioned him or the effects of his candidacy.Neal said Democratic leaders fear social conservatives would turn out to vote against him.
"There are a lot of people within the Democratic Party establishment who are uncomfortable with my candidacy," Neal said last week. "If I thought people were going to come out and vote, en masse, against me because I'm gay, then I wouldn't have run in the first place. But there are people in the party establishment who don't share that view."
National committees for both the Democrats and Republicans often will anoint a candidate, not publicly but quietly. National party leaders might encourage a particular candidate, clear the field of other contenders, help round up supporters and donors, or all of the above.
"I feel sure that they weren't going to give that other guy (Neal) 50 cents," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Cumberland County Democrat and majority leader in the N.C. Senate.
Rand said he doesn't know what motivated the Democratic Senate committee, but "they just weren't excited about (Neal's) candidacy."
Appearance of concern
Neal and Hagan will compete in the May primary, and the Democratic senatorial committee is expected to provide funding and support for whoever wins the nomination.
Hagan has supported Equality North Carolina, a gay rights organization, and the group's executive director, Ian Palmquist, said he is confident Neal's sexual orientation did not affect her decision to run. It did, though, seem to motivate those who pushed her to run, Palmquist said.
"It certainly looks like the DSCC may have been concerned about supporting a gay candidate in a Southern state," he said.
As a senator, Schumer has not supported gay marriage, but did vote to block a constitutional amendment banning it. He also supports civil unions and voted to include sexual orientation in hate crimes legislation.
The state Democratic Party did not encourage or discourage any candidate, as it must remain neutral, chairman Jerry Meek said. "We're focused on defeating Elizabeth Dole," Meek said in a statement.
Surprising situation
A former staffer at the national Democratic Senate committee said he was surprised Schumer didn't at least meet with Neal. The gay community has reliably contributed to Democrats, said the former staffer, who asked not to be identified because he still deals with committee staff.
"The knee-jerk reaction is -- and probably is the right reaction -- that an openly gay person running for statewide office in North Carolina, even in the 21st century, is likely problematic," the former staffer said.
Neal said he has seen the opposite from voters across the state, who have offered inspirational and supportive comments.
"At the end of the day," he said, "that's all that matters to me." Observer Exclusive
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Until voting blocks actually vote the other way the RATS are going to keep picking candidates that appeal to swing voters since 80% of the population will never change their vote.
LOL! until the LAT outs Huma, that is the story untold.?
The rat only wants to seem tolerant. He actally could not care less about this guy or any other gays because he knows they suffere from BVS (Battered Voter Syndrome) and will never stop voting for him. The fact that there is no way any rat can win NC provides perfect cover for not going there.
Plus don’t they want to back a person who is going to win. Perhaps they thought this guy did not have a chance of winning. Sometimes it is just that reason...
They have a quota of on lesbian for high office per election, and Hillary is that lesbo this year.
It is simply the lesson of 2006
DINO trumps RINO.
Just look and pro-homosexuals in the military, pro-homosexual based marriage hillary when she was on cable with the homosexuals at thier “debate” because she had a perfect chance to come out of the closet to support homosexual marriage.
Democrats are only about cliques for power. Policy is irrelevant and the sexual interest groups are easily sacrificed.
Doesn’t a lesbian count as gay? Don’t the Dems have a lesbian, who was outed by her husband, running for a federal job? Or is she above being counted in the gay-for-office debate?
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