National Organization for Marriage email:
This weeks primary election returns in eight states served as yet another wakeup call to an out-of-touch GOP establishment. The Republican base is sending a clear message, and it’s not one the establishment wants to hear. Even as unelected party elites find it fashionable to support same-sex marriage, the base is having none of it.
In New Hampshire, pro-SSM Bill Binnie finished a distant third in the GOP senate primary, just weeks after his self-funded $6 million campaign was closing in on front-runner Kelly Ayotte. But after NOM and Cornerstone Action launched TV and radio ads to make voters aware of Binnie’s pro-SSM, pro-abortion views, his campaign quickly fizzled, proving that once again, support for same-sex marriage is a career-ending position for Republican politicians.
In Delaware also, the establishment’s anointed candidate for Senate, Mike Castle, was shockingly up-ended by conservative newcomer Christine O’Donnell. Here’s how NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher put it in her syndicated column today:
The results shocked everyone, especially the GOP establishment. “Dark horse” does not begin to describe how inconceivably unlikely O’Donnell’s bid appeared to all of us, just a few months back. I myself spoke at a panel in Pennsylvania last spring, and Christine O’Donnell was just a face in the audience, she introduced herself and said she was running for the senate against Mike Castle. The idea she might beat him never crossed my mind….
Here’s the truth: O’Donnell didn’t really beat Mike Castle in a fair fight, she beat him in an unfair fight where the odds were heavily stacked against her by a GOP establishment that demonstrated their fear of the voters by plowing money into electing an anointed candidate in a GOP primary for an open seat. From the politicos point of view it was a no-brainer.
But then the voters had their say.
Christine O’Donnell victory represents a powerful backlash by rank-and file Republicans. The GOP elites signaled their distrust and dislike of the GOP base and the base repaid them by a shellacking. The natives are restless out there and they do not trust the GOP Washington establishment any more than they trust the Democratic establishment.
How the men who run the GOP respond to this insurrection, which has now toppled anointed GOP candidates in states from Florida to Alaska, will be key to the GOP’s long-term future. The temptation by the professional pols will be to respond to the electorate’s unreasonableness by ever more aggressive efforts to disown the base. In particular it is clear that many professions pols in GOP elites do not like the social issues, while GOP voters are united around them.
But support for marriage isn’t limited to Republican voters. In New York, gay marriage activists promised vengeance on Democratic state senators who opposed same-sex marriage last year. Only problem is that voters simply refused to go along with the plan. Despite a number of well-funded primary Democratic challengers, gay marriage activists had little success in unseating pro-marriage Democrats in New York. Their #1 target was outspoken marriage supporter Ruben Diaz . . . who won his primary yesterday with 80% of the vote. Senator Shirley Huntley, another pro-marriage Democrat who has even received death threats for her opposition to same-sex marriage, won her primary by a similar margin. Even in the one race where a sitting senator was defeated, it’s hard to claim with a straight face that Bill Stachowski’s vote on same-sex marriage made the difference in his 40-point defeat in a conservative district.
Time and time again, voters are telling politicians to protect marriage – voters don’t want gay marriage forced on them by politicians or the courts. It’s time for the politicians to sit up and listen, or risk career-ending defeats at the ballot box.
Brian BrownFaithfully,
Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage
2029 K Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006