Call it a wave, a shellacking or simply a very good election year for Republicans. But whatever you call it, don’t call it the year of the gay Republican. Two candidates, Carl DeMaio, who ran against Scott Peters in California’s 52nd district, and Richard Tisei, who ran against Seth Moutlon in North Boston’s normally Democratic sixth district, were both defeated. A third gay Republican hopeful, Dan Innis, lost his primary in New Hampshire back in September.
According to an analysis by Russell Berman over on TheAtlantic.com, the losses were felt particularly acutely by the Log Cabin Republicans who devoted enormous energy and resources into both races, especially DeMaio’s. Gregory Angelo, executive director, spent the last week of the campaign volunteering for the former San Diego city councilman and mayoral candidate. Allegations of sexual misconduct against DeMaio by two former staffers dominated headlines in the closing days of what Angelo called “the dirtiest, filthiest type of campaign that I have ever witnessed. I do wonder how significant those 11th hour smears were,” Angelo said in a phone interview on Monday, referring to the claims that DeMaio exposed himself to multiple staffers in separate incidents. “Allegations such as these certainly do play into stereotypes that people have of gay individuals.”
But despite those theories, Berman overlooks one simple fact: Carl DeMaio is simply not a well-liked politician. When he ran for mayor of San Diego, he earned a paltry 20 percent of the LGBT vote and no amount of massaging of the facts can change that.
Still, in some respects, this was a historic election as both candidates received money and support from top-tier Republican names including Speaker of the House John Boehner who campaigned on DeMaio’s behalf in California.
Angelo adds, “It [is] clear from the Log Cabin’s experiences on the ground that even in liberal Massachusetts and Southern California, there remains some portion of the electorate that won’t vote for a gay candidate. There still is homophobia that may not be alive and well but is certainly alive.”
Unless, of course, you are, say, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin.
