Gay rights group hailed for election role
Democrats say work key to party gains
WASHINGTON -- The Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's leading gay political organizations, played a quiet but pivotal role electing Democrats at the federal and local level in November, a startling turnaround for a group whose demands for gay marriage helped defeat Democratic candidates in 2004, according to party leaders and lawmakers.
Playing down its support for gay marriage, the HRC mobilized its 650,000 members to staff phone banks, raise money, and participate in get-out-the-vote campaigns to elect candidates sympathetic to gay issues, even if they didn't support gay marriage. The group was the single biggest donor to Democratic state Senate races in New Hampshire, helping the party take control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time since 1874.
The group also helped congressional candidates from Arizona to Florida and Ohio, and party activists believe the organization can play an even larger role in the 2008 elections. The idea, leaders say, is to become a steady source of funds and grass-roots support for Democrats -- more akin to a labor union than a single-issue activist group.
"They took it to the grass roots and had people in individual states helping, either by volunteering or sending personal contributions," said Tina Stoll , a Democratic fund-raiser. Instead of throwing its money at defeating ballot initiatives banning gay marriage, the HRC focused on electing Democratic majorities -- even if it meant helping candidates who weren't fully in support of their agenda, she said.
"They didn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Stoll said.
Gay-rights advocates acknowledge that their issues still divide the country and can make trouble for some pro-gay marriage candidates in conservative states. So they often opted to back the most sympathetic candidate, even if he or she did not embrace the group's entire agenda.
"What makes you politically powerful is money and membership. We have both, and we have the power to deliver both. We need to do it in a way that makes people stand up and take notice," said Joe Solmonese , HRC president .
In Florida, the HRC worked hard to elect Democrat Ron Klein , despite the fact that Klein does not back gay marriage. Klein is otherwise supportive of gay rights and backs civil unions, but his greatest appeal to the HRC was that his narrow victory over GOP incumbent Representative Clay Shaw helped give the Democrats the numbers they needed to take control of the US House.
"They had numerous people manning the phones. They were very engaged in getting the vote out," said Klein, adding that the HRC also raised at least $20,000 for him.
Solmonese said the group decided after the losses of 2004 that they could be more effective by focusing on candidates instead of ballot initiatives.
The Human Rights Campaign spent more than $5 million on election-related activities, including contributions, staff, and direct mail, the group's officers said. Eighty-four staff members were sent to help 30 targeted races in 18 states. More than 90 percent of the 232 candidates the HRC endorsed -- mostly Democrats, but some pro-gay rights Republicans -- won their elections in November.
In Ohio -- a battlefield state former Democratic presidential nominee Senator John F. Kerry lost narrowly in 2004, in part because of the gay marriage issue -- the HRC played a strong role in Democratic campaigns, said Senator Sherrod Brown , a Democrat whose win in Ohio was essential to his party's takeover of the Senate last year. "They are about a progressive message ," Brown said, calling the HRC's performance in his campaign "terrific."
Mark Weaver , an Ohio-based GOP consultant, said he noticed the HRC's role in Brown's campaign, but "it was definitely under the radar."
"The average Ohioan opposes gay marriage," but the HRC was still effective in the 2006 campaigns, Weaver said.
"Even controversial groups can make a significant impact in elections if they're willing to open their pocketbooks," he added. Representative Harry Mitchell , Democrat of Arizona, said the HRC sent him a full-time staff member to work in his office and added another later in the campaign. Mitchell also does not support gay marriage, although he opposed a state referendum against same-sex marriage because it went "too far" in its language. Still, Mitchell said, "I've always been supportive of gay rights," and the HRC was "terrific" in helping him unseat Republican J.D. Hayworth , a top target of the Democrats.
The organization was most active in New Hampshire, donating a total of $135,000 to Democratic state Senate candidates. A staff member for the gay rights group served as the get-out-the-vote director for the Senate Democratic caucus and worked with party officials for a statewide plan to get voters to the polls.
At the HRC's urging, state Democratic party officials -- who had been planning just a volunteer phone bank and poll-watching campaign -- paid workers to call voters, knock on doors, and get them to the voting station, according to HRC and party officials.
The gay rights group's staff managed more than 35 paid Senate campaign staff and 1,500 volunteers, developing customized plans for eight races, they said.
"We never would have been able to do this without the large level of support we received from the HRC," said Ray Buckley , vice chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
New Hampshire Democrats won six of the eight targeted state Senate races, flipping the chamber from a 16-to-8 GOP majority to a 14-to-10 Democratic advantage. "The Human Rights Campaign was there with that extra push," Buckley added. 