Anti-gay campaigns fail in Republican primary

LANSING – Mud-slinging is nothing new in politics, but Michigan's primary election saw an unprecedented amount of anti-gay campaigning. The issue of gay and lesbian rights, specifically marriage, was front and center in a race that garnered a very low turnout overall.
Candidates who waged anti-gay campaigns against their opponents failed in almost every race.
"2004 has been filled with more anti-gay rhetoric and campaigning than any year in history," said Sean Kosofsky, Director of Policy for Triangle Foundation. "Those anti-gay campaigns failed because Michigan voters are tired of the distractions and tired of the divisiveness."
"We know that a very small percentage of the general population considers same-sex marriage to be the top issue of the day," said Wendy Howell, campaign manager for the Coalition for a Fair Michigan. "They'd much rather be talking about health care, the economy, and things they consider to be more relevant to their lives and I think we saw that borne out in the primaries across the state."
The Republican primary had the greatest concentration of anti-gay campaigning. The party even endorsed more moderate Republicans, like Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Oakland County Treasurer Pat Dohaney, as an anti-gay, ultra conservative slate ran against them. Patterson was quoted July 28 in the Oakland Press calling the more conservative slate the "Taliban wing of the party."
All of the incumbent candidates endorsed by Patterson won the election with the exception of G. William Caddell, who lost to challenger Ruth Johnson by less than 12 percent.
Losing to incumbent Dohaney was notoriously anti-gay Tom McMillin, who gave up his Oakland County Commissioner seat to throw his hat in the ring for Dohaney's job. Dohaney garnered 57 percent of the vote compared to McMillin's 43 percent.
McMillin campaigned against Patterson and everyone Patterson had endorsed. The Oakland Press reported that McMillin made phone calls to likely Republican voters claiming that Patterson supported the Triangle Foundation's "radical homosexual agenda."
Patterson supports the inclusion of sexual orientation in state hate crime laws. "We don't kill young gay guys just because they're gay. Maybe McMillin's brand of Christianity accepts that. Mine does not," Patterson was quoted as saying in the Oakland Press July 28.
Patterson won his race by a wide margin.
Incumbent State Representative Lorence Wenke (63rd District) fended off opponent Jerry Vander Roest, but not by much. Wenke was targeted because of his vote in March against putting the anti-equal marriage amendment on the ballot; he was one of only three Republicans to do so. Wenke won with 50.3 percent of the vote, compared to Vander Roest's 49.7 percent. There will likely be a recount.
State Representative Leon Drolet (31st District, Macomb County) was also challenged in the primary over the issue of marriage for gays and lesbians. He defeated his closest challenger, Maria Carl, with over 60 percent of the vote.
According to a July 28 Detroit News article, Drolet is suing Carl for defamation of character after she sent fliers out accusing Drolet of wanting to "legalize public sex involving kids and prostitution." Neither charge was true. Drolet is hardly a liberal or even moderate Republican – he's against affirmative action and abortion rights, for example – and many believe he was challenged solely because he, like Wenke, voted against putting the anti-equal marriage amendment on the ballot.
Joe Schwarz, the incumbent Congressman representing Michigan's 7th district, was the target of attacks from multiple candidates, many of which focused on the issue of marriage for gays and lesbians. Schwarz, who opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment and was endorsed by Pride PAC in this race, was portrayed as supporting marriages for gays by his opponents even though he voted for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
An ad for Schwarz's opponent Gene DeRossett that aired in the Lansing, Jackson and Battle Creek markets featured two groom figurines on a wedding cake with a voice-over saying, "This is Joe Schwarz's idea of marriage" and a photo of two men in tuxes with the voice over, "Joe Schwarz opposed a ban on gay marriage."
Schwarz, the only moderate in a six way race, beat his closest opponent Brad Smith by less than six percent of the vote.
"We have been saying for years that supporting equality for GLBT people will not be a candidate's Achilles heel," said Kosofsky. "Michigan is a welcoming place that believes in fairness."
"Using gay marriage as a political weapon isn't going to work," said Howell.