Monday, May 5, 2008

Does Migden-Leno-Nation tussle threaten effort to defeat the marriage ban initiative?

The Bay Area Reporter is concerned about whether the grappling among out legislators Carole Migden and Mark Leno and enviro former legislator Joe Nation for the state senate seat currently held by Migden could harm the effort against the marriage ban proposal that will likely be on the November statewide ballot.

Whoever wins the primary for the state senate seat would be expected to lead the fight against the initiative -- if one of the two Babylonians gets the Democratic nod. Senator Migden or a Senator Leno would be one of the two highest-ranking queer elected officials in the state (Christine Kehoe of San Diego will be the other out senator) and could bring in much additional funding from the LGBT community nationwide.

But half of the senate district is north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Nation's Marin-Sonoma territory, and there is a real possibility that Migden and Leno will split San Francisco as they scratch each other's eyes out and let Nation walk through the breach. A Senator Nation would certainly be earnest, but one must ask if he could bring in the green to fight the marriage apartheid initiative.

One Migden supporter seems to think not, setting up the laying of blame at Leno's feet with this kidney jab in the Reporter article:
"It raises the issue, and this came up early when Mark first got into the race, about resources. Why are we spending over a million dollars with two gay people fighting?...Now we have set up a situation where we could lose the Senate seat and the marriage fight."


Expect all kinds of rainbow finger pointing if Nation walks away with what some thespians think of as "our" state senate seat. If he does, green will be the new pink.

Just 29 more days to go.

No comments :

 
eXTReMe Tracker