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Jon Hoadley, president of National Stonewall Democrats. His group this week announced its endorsement of U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama. (Photo by Henry Linser)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: CHRIS JOHNSON
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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was poised to receive the backing from the National Stonewall Democrats Thursday when the organization planned to announce its endorsement for the candidate.
The board of directors for the National Stonewall Democrats unanimously decided to support Obama with a voice vote about three weeks ago, according to John Marble, spokesperson for the organization.
In the statement provided by the gay Democratic group, Obama said he was grateful for the support.
“Their focus on grassroots organizing is so important as we work to engage all Americans in our campaign for change,” he said.
Jon Hoadley, executive director for the gay Democratic group, said in a statement that Obama won the support of his organization because of “his advocacy for pro-equality positions and his strong record of leadership.”
The statement commended Obama for advocating for an Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) with gender identity protections, greater HIV prevention funding, the passage of hate crimes legislation and the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Marble said Stonewall waited three weeks after the board made its decision to announce the endorsement because the organization wanted to engage with chapter leaders across the country.
“Taking three extra weeks to prepare those people on the ground to be ready to do that hard work of going door to door and calling people is going to be a better benefit to our organization and to our endorsed candidate than had we just sent out a release,” he said.
The National Stonewall Democrats are making their endorsement for the presumptive Democratic nominee relatively later in the election season than they did in the last presidential election. In 2004, the organization threw its support behind then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in April.
Marble said the National Stonewall Democrats took longer to endorse the Democratic candidate for president this election season because 2004 was a more “compressed election cycle than we’re in now.”
He noted that while Kerry faced limited competition as the Democratic primary played out in 2004, Obama and Clinton this year competed for the nomination until the last primary contests in June.
Marble said the group offered its endorsement “with accountability as well” and said the organization will continue to press Obama on gay issues during the campaign.
LOG CABIN UNDECIDED
While gay Democrats rally behind their party’s presidential candidate, the National Log Cabin Republicans have yet to make a decision on whether or not to endorse Republican presidential candidate John McCain in his bid for the White House.
The gay GOP group did not endorse President Bush in his bid for re-election in 2004.
Patrick Sammon, Log Cabin president, said his organization had yet to make a decision on the McCain endorsement because leaders are “continuing to assess the situation.” The organization is getting input from members and is having discussions with the campaign, he said.
Sammon said he did not want to give a timetable for when Log Cabin would make a decision. The organization did not make its decisions in 2000 and 2004 until after the Republican National Convention. He said the process is on a similar track this time.
While gay political organizations make their decisions on whom to endorse for president, a recent poll is showing that Obama is trouncing McCain in support among gay Americans.
A Harris Interactive poll published Monday found that while 60 percent of gay Americans are supporting Obama, 14 percent are supporting McCain.
Comparatively, among all registered voters, the Democratic candidate leads with 44 percentage points compared to the GOP candidate’s 35 percentage points.
Marble said Obama’s lead in the polls shows that the candidate is in a stronger position with the gay community than previous presidential nominees.
“I expect that 60 percent number to be a baseline and to go higher,” he said. “I think there’s a good chunk of undecideds that are still out there.”
But Sammon said he was skeptical of the numbers in the poll, noting that President Bush got around 25 percent of vote from self-identified gays in 2004 even though he supported the Federal Marriage Amendment.
“McCain’s record is much more inclusive and I’m confident that he will get 25 or 30 percent,” Sammon said. “If he runs a centrist, middle-of-the-road campaign, he could do even better than 30 percent.”
While McCain has taken some flak from critics for some his positions on gay issues, he said last week that he would be open to a review of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prevents servicemembers from being out.
“I’ll be glad to have it reviewed but from my ...
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