MORE INFO: Arnold Fleischmann is a faculty member in Political Science at the University of Georgia and coauthor of “Politics in Georgia.” He can be reached at redhead00@bellsouth.net.
Georgia voters turned out in record numbers for the Feb. 5 presidential primaries. Now it’s time to ignore the presidential race and turn to matters closer to home. That means recruiting LGBT-friendly candidates for the Georgia legislature and making sure our friends already serving get re-elected.
People seeking the 180 House seats and 56 Senate seats have to file to run between April 28 and May 2. Georgia Equality, Stonewall Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans, and other groups need to find people to run for seats occupied by those who have fought us on marriage, hate crimes, nondiscrimination protections, and other issues.
The top priority might be seats without an incumbent running for re-election. This could start with District 48 in the Georgia Senate, currently occupied Nancy Schaefer, one of the most virulent opponents of gay rights. Schaefer is giving up her seat in the Georgia legislature to challenge Congressman Paul Broun in the 10th District Republican primary. Schaefer barely beat her Democratic opponent with 53 percent of the vote in 2006.
A second strategy is to target competitive districts with candidates and money. Sadly, most members of the legislature run for re-election unopposed. Still, there were 10 House seats that Republicans won by less than a 60-40 split in 2006. The same is true of two Senate seats, including one in Athens.
A third option is to challenge Democrats in the primary who supported the 2004 marriage amendment. Without their support, the amendment never would have been on the ballot. Seventeen of those Democrats are still in the House, and three are in the Senate. So are 11 representatives who voted as Democrats to put the measure on the ballot – and later “converted” to the Republican party!
Amendment backers include the current Democratic leader in the House, Dubose Porter. He and rural Democrats who voted in favor of the amendment might be hard to defeat.
There are Democrats in North Georgia, though, worth targeting. The marriage amendment came up twice on the same day. It failed the first time, when Democrats Sharon Beasley-Teague, Randal Mangham, and LaNett Stanley-Turner did not vote. Twenty minutes later, however, all three voted “yes” – giving the amendment enough votes to be on the November ballot. Jeannette Jamieson of Toccoa also switched her vote on the marriage amendment, but she barely beat her Republican challenger in 2006.
A fourth tactic is to reward friends. That includes Jill Chambers, the only Republican to vote against the marriage amendment, and Kevin Levitas, who faced a tough Republican opponent in 2006.
A final option would be to make life difficult for major opponents. Thus, Log Cabin could seek out a candidate to challenge people like Clay Cox in the Republican primary.
LGBT groups might need to cooperate based on a district’s characteristics. If a district leans heavily to one political party, the strategy means winning a Democratic or Republican primary. If the seat is competitive, groups might need to agree on whether to back one gay-friendly candidate in the July primary or in November. LGBT groups also have to be careful to find candidates who are similar to a district’s racial, ethnic, and other characteristics.
Sadly, much of this work might have to be done with stealth. This could be especially true of backing candidates in Republican primaries, where the Christian Right can be mobilized in response to an endorsement from a group like Georgia Equality. An alternative is to hold back endorsements until the last minute and then mobilizing LGBT voters.
The primaries will be July 15 – but now is the time to shape the list of names on the ballot.
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