Which would a Republican be more likely to vote for (or against) -- lower taxes, or legal protection for their gay son?
Depending on your outlook, the answer might be encouraging. Eva Young points to a December 25 Star Tribune article on the St Cloud special election, which noted that:
Until recently, legislative special elections in Minnesota were thought of as a playing field tilted toward Republicans, who usually had better luck than DFLers motivating voters for these low-profile, low-turnout contests ...Although central Minnesota is known as a hotbed of religious conservatism, [Senate Majority Leader Dean] Johnson [DFL-Willmar] suggested that "social issues are not carrying the day" as they did in the past. "Core issues" such as education, transportation, health care and the environment are gaining more attention from voters, he said.
[Republicans Dan] Ochsner, [Kay] Ek and the IP's [Dan] Becker are touting their opposition to abortion, support for a constitutional ban on gay marriage and fiscal conservatism. Besides the "core issues," [DFLers Tarryl] Clark and [Larry] Haws stress positive efforts to reduce abortion instead of new restrictions -- "The Ten Commandments didn't end sin," Haws says -- and note that a 1997 state statute outlawing gay marriage has not been challenged.
The DFL won both seats yesterday by a comfortable margin...
The state Republicans blamed their own (extremely right wing) candidate Sue Ek, whose last minute disqualification on non-residency grounds and write-in replacement by her mother 'caused confusion among the voters' and supposedly 'drowned out the message that Clark is a liberal who is out of touch with the district.' The Dems on the other hand 'said they won by concentrating on health care, education and transportation rather than the social issues such as abortion that have often carried the day in heavily Roman Catholic St. Cloud.'
"We were positive the whole time," said Clark. "We didn't go negative at all. These voters are people who have known me for a long time."In addition, DFL leaders saw a growing trend of voters turning their way in what they described as "traditionally conservative districts."
With the DFL increasing their Senate majority and maintaining their position in the House, this hopefully means the anti-marriage amendment is dead for now.
Eva Young adds her own spin on why the GOP might have lost:
A Republican friend of mine - who has a gay son, will be voting for Clark - he said his choice was between high taxes and his son - and he'd rather vote for someone who would raise his taxes than someone who would attack his son.
All the more reason why GLBT and allied people need to continue working at the grass roots level to change people's minds about who we are and what we value -- and why everything all of us cherish is at risk as long as the 'roaring lions' and 'evening wolves' like Dan Oschner and Sue Ek continue to roam the city to 'do violence to the law' (Zephaniah 3:3-4, and there's your Bible prophecy verse for the day!).
Leave a comment