These mailers were sent to voters in Nassau County, where a special election is being held Tuesday, Feb. 6, for a state senate seat. In part, the mailers read: "Craig Johnson and gay marriage. A match made in heaven. Your vote is the only thing that can stop Craig Johnson and the gay community from legalizing gay marriage in New York State. Staying home on election day is a vote for gay marriage."
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By KERRY ELEVELD
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Voters in the 7th Senate District today, Feb. 6, are being bombarded with reasons to get out and vote, including this one from a mailer stating it was paid for by the Nassau County Conservative Party: “The only way to stop gay marriage is to stop Craig Johnson on election day. Staying home on election day is a vote for gay marriage.”
One side of the mailer features two grooms atop a wedding cake with the words, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” The flip side displays a big red “Stop” sign surrounded by a number of reasons why voting against Craig Johnson will keep the institution of marriage gay free. "Craig Johnson and gay marriage. A match made in heaven," it reads. “Your vote is the only thing that can stop Craig Johnson and the gay community from legalizing gay marriage in New York State."
Democratic candidate Craig Johnson has taken a pro-marriage equality stance, while Republican Maureen O’Connell is backing civil unions. Neither the O’Connell campaign nor the Nassau County Conservative Party returned phone calls for this story.
But David Verchere, president of the Log Cabin Republicans—which has backed the O’Connell campaign with volunteers and a pledge of $8,000—called the mailer both “mean” and “dumb.”
“These tactics are beneath the dignity of the Conservative Party of New York,” Verchere said. “They remind us of people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who use anti-gay rhetoric to preach hatred and intolerance.” He added that the mailing was not indicative of O’Connell’s “strong record” on equal rights for all New Yorkers, nor did it reflect the “mainstream values” of the people of Nassau County.
That last point is where Verchere agrees with Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, although the Pride Agenda threw all of its weight and $8,500 behind Johnson’s campaign.
“Our polling in that senate district last year showed that 57 percent of primary voters favored marriage equality, and only 37 percent opposed it, and those were the best numbers of any senate district we polled and even better than the statewide average,” Van Capelle said. “Anyone who had bothered to do any research in that district would have concluded that this mailing would have little-to-no-effect.”
Ethan Geto of Geto and de Milly said last-minute flyers that use scare tactics often backfire because voters see them as smears because the opponent has no ability to respond and the issue cannot be debated.
“Gay marriage is also not the bogeyman in New York State that it has
been in some other communities,” Geto said. “I doubt this is going to
cause many conservative voters who otherwise would not vote to run to
the polls.”
John Marble, Communications Director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said his organization has seen these tactics used in “every campaign cycle in pretty much every region of the country” but added that the effectiveness has begun to wane over the past couple of years.
“They hit their peak around 2002 during the Republican surge but have generally become less effective as voters have put emphasis on more important issues,” Marble said.
Van Capelle said he was not surprised to see this type of tactic from people associated with the O’Connell campaign.
“This is the same campaign that put Osama bin Laden in a direct mail piece,” he noted, referring to a mailer that featured a New York State Office of Homeland Security insignia, pictures of Osama Bin Laden, and the question, “Why do we need a senator with Homeland Security experience?”
“If you can politicize September 11th in a district that lost so many of its citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center, then certainly sending out a piece of gay-bashing material is not beneath them,” Van Capelle said.
The race between Craig Johnson and Republican Maureen O’Connell for the Senate seat vacated by Republican Michael Balboni has turned into an epic clash of the Titans, with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Hillary Clinton both campaigning yesterday for their respective candidates. The New York Times reported today that the race had broken the record for the most expensive state Senate campaign on the books to date, surpassing $5 million.
If the Democrats win the seat, the Republican majority in the state Senate will be whittled down to a razor-thin two seats.
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