Will the Democrats Pony Up?

[xchrom]

http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Will_the_Democrats_Pony_Up/



This year, anti–marriage equality referendums loom in states throughout the country. Is the DNC committing resources to fighting them? Is it even its role to do so?
By Andrew Harmon

WASHINGTON — A few weeks ago, Jeremy Kennedy was in Washington, D.C., shaking his fund-raising cup for the campaign to defeat Amendment 1, North Carolina’s draconian, anti–marriage equality ballot measure whose fate state voters will decide in a few short months.

As campaign manager for The Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, Kennedy, 33, had a January 13 meeting with two Democratic National Committee officials, and his pitch to them was significant. For starters, he asked that President Obama specifically speak out against the amendment, to be voted on in the May state primary election. It’s a no-brainer, he argued, in part because North Carolina, a key battleground state, will host the September Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, where the party will renominate the president. Though it already statutorily bars same-sex marriage, North Carolina is the last southern state without a constitutional amendment banning such rights.

Kennedy also wanted high-level party surrogates to record robo-calls informing North Carolina voters that Amendment 1 would not only bar same-sex couples from marriage under the state constitution but would also strip away the “most basic personal freedoms,” from medical decision-making to child custody rights. Finally, he asked the DNC to write a check for his coalition in what may be a $3 million to $5 million campaign. Kennedy declined to go on record with the actual amount but called the figure “a sizable investment.”

His request was not entirely out of left field. In 2008 the DNC gave $25,000 to a "decline to sign" campaign in an effort to keep California's Proposition 8 off the ballot. (Kennedy’s request is well north of that amount, he said.) DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told LGBT reporters at an October fund-raiser that she would “certainly consider” allocating resources in the fight against another round of ballot measures over same-sex marriage in 2012. Kennedy is from Maine, where in 2009 national Democratic inaction during a referendum to repeal a marriage law led to a drubbing for the DNC from LGBT activists when the ballot measure passed by a small margin. And with North Carolina Democratic governor Bev Perdue’s recent announcement that she would not seek a second term, Democrats have another important reason to show up for the May primary election.

[Bohunk68]

1. Too early to tell.

However, it wouldn't surprise me if nothing was dropped in the till. For a long time, I have been an admirer of Ms. Wasserman-Schulz, however, lately, it is my perception that since becoming DCCC head, she is moving right-ward. I've heard her some on the tv shows and have done a headslap when she has stated a few things that sounded wishy-washy and not like what positions she had taken before.

[William769]

2. I don't have faith in the DNC on this issue.

[DURHAM D]

4. Nope -

not since Howard Dean, Donna Brazille and Leah Daughtry moved our chairs and placed us outside the tent. I have not given the DNC a penny since.

[mitchtv]

3. i'll bet no

past experience as my guide. They'll run and hide