Presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D-N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama, (D-Ill.), and former Sen. John Edwards, (D-N.C.), listen to a question during a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Monday. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, January 25, 2008
Presidential primary season continues to escalate with the South Carolina primary happening for Democrats Saturday and primaries for both Republicans and Democrats scheduled in Florida for Tuesday.
The Florida primary will be a major contest on the Republican side because the state is offering 57 delegates on a winner-takes-all-basis. The Democratic National Committee is punishing Florida by stripping the state of its delegates for moving its primary date up, so the contest on the Democratic side will be symbolic.
National Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Sammon said the Florida primary “is wide open” and that “whoever wins Florida will be in a good position” for future primaries.
Florida polls show Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a tight race. A recent poll shows McCain with 22 percentage points of the vote, Romney with 21 percentage points and Giuliani with 20 percentage points.
“We should know a lot more about where this race is headed [after Florida],” Sammon said.
Mike Huckabee compared same-sex marriage to polygamy, pedophilia and bestiality in an interview Jan. 17.
“I don’t think that’s a radical view to say we’re going to affirm marriage,” he told beliefnet.com, a religion web site. “I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal.”
At a Jan. 14 debate in Michigan, Huckabee called for a change in the Constitution because “it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God.”
“And that’s what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards, rather than try to change God’s standards,” he said.
Sammon said Huckabee’s remarks were inappropriate and “demonstrate that he’s out of touch with mainstream America.”
Remarks made by a representative for Romney’s campaign during a forum hosted by the D.C. chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans Jan. 16 had at least one attendee feeling disappointed.
During the forum, representatives from the campaigns of four Republican presidential contenders expressed views on why the Log Cabin Republicans should endorse their candidate.
Michael Cleary made remarks on Romney’s behalf. During his presentation he did not mention gay issues, instead focusing on how Romney revived several failing companies during his business career.
David Lampo, vice president of Virginia Log Cabin Republicans and attendee at the forum, criticized Cleary for neglecting to address gay issues and asked him to state where Romney stood on them.
Cleary responded that he could not recall a time in recent years when Romney went “out of his way” to emphasize gay rights. Cleary added that, “I want to make the point that he won’t oppose them.”
Noting Romney’s endorsement for an amendment defining marriage in the U.S. Constitution, Cleary told attendees that they should not interpret his position as being “prejudicial towards gays.”
Other candidates at the forum more openly discussed gay issues.
James Kadtke, the representative from McCain’s campaign, did not use the word “gay” during his presentation, but said he wanted to address “a lot of the issues your group is concerned with.”
Kadtke noted that McCain was one of the few Republican senators to vote against the federal marriage amendment.
McCain often does not follow the lead of the Bush administration and that he “fought tooth-and-nail” against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Kadtke said.
Berin Szoka, the representative for Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, noted that Paul endorses the idea of gay marriage and opposes a federal marriage amendment on libertarian principles.
Szoka said Paul supports the Defense of Marriage Act because it allows states to define marriage as they see fit.
“States should define marriage for themselves and no state should be forced to change its definition of marriage by virtue of one state deciding what marriage should be,” Szoka said.
Carl Schmid, the gay co-chair of the Giuliani campaign in Washington, said Giuliani had a “longstanding support of gay rights and gay equality” as New York City mayor.
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