Wednesday, June 29, 2005

EPT for Republicans

Republican candidates for the Massachusetts legislature next year will have to pass a litmus test on Gay Marriage.

The Republican State Committee has a problem. They're planning to support the amendment referendum that should be on the ballot in November of 2006, once the legislature approves it again in this session. This issue is the heart and soul of the party. The problem is that some of the Republican incumbents and the many of the potential republican candidates do not support the constitutional amendment defining marriage to the exclusion of gays while creating a special civil status for their unions.

Public opinion has shifted since the Supreme Court authorized gay marriage last year. Getting elected anywhere but in the Romney suburbs opposing gay marriage is not a good bet. But in order to create support for the amendment referendum, the State Committee has to create discipline in the party. In other words, they can't have the Gubenatorial candidate running in one direction and the undercard running in the other.

So the party is looking for a few good candidates to run in the districts, who support the amendment referendum, even at the expense of candidates who do not.

Here in our own lower Cape district, currently represented by Shirley Gomes (R) Harwich, (she's retiring to avoid the question), there seems to be a candidate that has a chance to keep the seat for the Jumbos, but doesn't support the amendment. So what do you think the State GOP's going to do? Find a candidate that will support it. Even if he doesn't live in the district. I kid you not!

You'd think they would learn. Last year they sent us a couple of carpetbaggers to run for the Senate seats from the Cape. That and all their other attempts to win some seats in the legislature and gain some credibility, failed utterly. So let's try it again.

But check with Mitt first. He's made some curious moves recently. Particularly backing away from the compromise amendment. Now he needs to be outrightly opposed to gay marriage. After all what would his friends in Utah say about his supporting Civil Unions? What would the voters of Ohio say?

With Mitt running for President, you'd think they'd just call the whole thing off. So what's this all about? Kerry Healy is calling the shots at the party now. Don't forget she used to run the State Committee. She needs support from the party regulars, and doesn't need voters to be confused next year. It's hard enough running for Governor without having the candidates for the House and Senate from her own party defecting to get elected.

Just like with the early pregnancy test, where you can't be a little bit pregnant, with this early political test, Republicans can't be a little bit gay.

1 Comments:

At 7:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Spyro - These are palpable falsehoods.

At the GOP State Comittee meeting last week, after they checked our decoder rings, we voted on our convention site - announced at a press conference today. That's all - no blood oath to support a secret agenda (although we DID get free cookies!) Along with a report from the Grass Roots Committee. I laugh when you say someone can 'call the shots' - herding cats is closer to it. We have much greater diversity and difference in stances than do the Dems - ever hear of a pro-life or anti-union Dem? We have married gay officials and pro-tax GOPs - far short of any litmus test.

We HAVE local candidates - in fact, we may AGAIN have local primaries, unlike the Dems, who haven't had one since 1998. Just because we havn't discussed it with you doesn't mean nothing is going on.

As a lifelong Republican, and as the State Committee Woman for the Cape and Islands, I take offense at your breathless 'inside baseball' disclosures, made in absolute ignorance of any facts. As someone who worked for Shirley Gomes, I am doubly offended that you think she would shirk ANY conflict. 12 years in the Legislature is enough, and she wishes to retire. If what you suggested were true, she wouldn't have run in 2004.

 

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