I take some satisfaction when the notion that black people are rabid homophobes waiting for the right conservative marketing campaign to sweep them into the arms of right-wing activists gets disproved. So after months of reporting on the marriage-equality movement in D.C., I found it interesting to watch the last of the four candidates NOM had endorsed or given money to in an effort to make D.C. Council members pay for extending marriage rights to same-sex couples lose his race:
The irony is that NOM's best chance for a win was Delano Hunter, who in some ways exemplifies the low priority black voters tend to place on issues like same-sex marriage. NOM emphasized his position on same-sex marriage more than he did, although as an underdog candidate struggling against a well-funded incumbent, he certainly didn't have much of an objection to their outside efforts on his behalf."In future races, religious people are going to start going after people's political careers," Jackson, the head of Stand4MarriageDC, told U.S. News and World Report. "You're going to see a bloodletting that is going to mark a new style of engagement for people who are against same-sex marriage."
Jackson's was no idle threat. Stand4MarriageDC is backed by the National Organization for Marriage. NOM's president, Brian Brown, serves as Stand4MarriageDC's treasurer. In the past two years, NOM has successfully exploited local backlashes against advances in gay rights. In Maine, NOM worked to secure a ballot initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage. In New York, it helped torpedo the nomination of moderate, marriage-equality-supporting Republican Dede Scozzafava, which left the contest to two candidates who both opposed same-sex-marriage rights. They aided in the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the same election that sent Barack Obama to the White House. The California victory was initially pinned on the increased turnout of black voters, so on paper, it's easy to see why NOM might have seen Washington, D.C. -- which is more than 50 percent African American -- as the site of another potential victory.
Last night's primary election was the time to make good on Jackson's threat. But in the nine months since there's been a lot of cash spent with little blood spilled. According to filings with D.C.'s Office of Campaign Finance, NOM has spent around $140,000 opposing pro-equality candidates in Washington, D.C., all of whom won last night or were defeated by other pro-equality candidates.
