This from the Maryland Catholic Conference:
"Young adults in Maryland say loud and clear: "Don't redefine marriage in Maryland." Vote "Against" Question 6 on November 6, 2012."
This from the Maryland Catholic Conference:
"Young adults in Maryland say loud and clear: "Don't redefine marriage in Maryland." Vote "Against" Question 6 on November 6, 2012."
At a luncheon hosted at the National Press Club, Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council explains why marriage will help Mitt Romney in swing states this November:
Mark Grisanti, one of the four GOP betrayers won the GOP nomination in Buffalo.
"Primaries in the Democratic Party are different than in the Republican Party. They're expected in the Democratic Party. They're not, in the Republican Party," said Carl J. Calabrese, a Republican former deputy Erie County executive who supported Grisanti in Thursday's vote.
"Because they're not expected, they tend to be nastier. Bad blood tends to linger longer in the Republican Party over primary fights." -- Buffalo News
Remember Dede Scozzafava?
It isn't over.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 14, 2012
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)
Defeated Incumbents Bring to Four Those Who Have Lost Their Seats over Supporting Same-sex Marriage
Washington, D.C.—The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today celebrated the defeat of two incumbent state Senators who voted to redefine marriage in New York. NOM played a pivotal role in helping to defeat the incumbents, Roy McDonald and Shirley Huntley. In addition, Neil DiCarlo, a NOM-backed challenger to Stephen Saland, was locked in a razor-close battle and expects to defeat the incumbent when final absentee votes are counted.
"Marriage was redefined in New York because of six turncoat Senators, and we vowed we would not rest until they were removed from office," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "We've now taken out four of the six who betrayed marriage, and we're going to finish the job with the remaining two."
Senator James Alesi was driven from his reelection race by NOM's pledge to defeat him. Senator Carl Kruger was forced to resign, and NOM helped elect pro-marriage Republican David Storobin to replace him. McDonald was defeated in the Republican primary by pro-marriage candidate Kathy Marchione. NOM was a major supporter of Marchione, sending two district-wide mailers and launching thousands of telephone calls. And Huntley was defeated in the Democratic primary by pro-marriage candidate James Sanders. NOM also sent two mailers and thousands of telephone calls opposing Huntley.
"When marriage was redefined, Andrew Cuomo and his billionaire friends like Paul Singer and Michael Bloomberg said they'd protect anyone who voted against marriage from political harm. Now look at the political carnage they have wrought," said Brown. "Four of their six Senators are [gone], and the other two will be soon. Neil DiCarlo expects to defeat Sen. Saland when all the votes are cast. And we will vigorously oppose Mark Grisanti in the general election. If that results in Dean Skelos losing his Senate majority, so be it. Skelos is also responsible for redefining marriage because he authorized the vote in the first instance."
Brown continued, "The people of New York have sent a clear and unequivocal message—they will not tolerate politicians, Democrat of Republican, who redefine marriage. It's laughable when groups like the Human Rights Campaign say that nobody has ever lost a race for supporting same-sex marriage. The landscape is littered with the failed political careers of such politicians, including now these four (soon to be six) incumbents in New York."
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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Jen Campbell (x145), [email protected], at 703-683-5004.
Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).
Local KTSP reports on the findings of their new poll showing the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment in the lead.
As we reported earlier, the survey found the Marriage Protection Amendment leading 50%-43% with 8% undecided:
The Associated Press on the other too-close-to-call race:
New York state Sen. Stephen Saland (suh-LAND') was in a tight fight in his first Republican primary in 20 years that hinged on his decision to support same-sex marriage.
According to unofficial results Thursday night, Saland was in a race too close to call against Neil DiCarlo, the chief compliance officer for a Wall Street equities firm.
Saland, of Poughkeepsie, was one of four Republicans who voted last June to approve same-sex marriage, a historic moment that made New York the sixth and by far the largest to legalize gay weddings.
After the vote, conservative Republicans vowed to knock Saland and the other three from office by running aggressive primaries. Two others, Sens. Roy McDonald of Saratoga County and Mark Grisanti (grih-SAHN'-tee) of Buffalo, also faced primaries Thursday. The fourth, James Alesi (uh-LEE'-see) of Rochester, retired.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City gave the closing benediction at the Democratic National Committee's convention and offered this line which is a veiled way of praying for the upkeep of the institution of marriage:
"We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community."
As Steve Ertelt reports, numerous Democratic and gay marriage activists responded on Twitter by hurling the f-bomb at Cardinal Dolan.
The Albany Times Union gets it: "the close race for McDonald was a reminder that a solid portion of the Republican base remains uncomfortable with same-sex marriage, and that grass-roots insurgents are at least an even match for the party's establishment candidates."
More from their coverage:
"...Unofficial numbers have Marchione ahead 6,792 to [McDonald's] 6,656.
No one was conceding the race, and lawyers for the campaign will negotiate how absentee ballots will be counted in coming days and weeks.
Though she always maintained her platform is broader, Marchione's challenge to McDonald became a localized referendum on his 2011 vote to legalize same-sex marriage.
A reminder about the financial differences between the two candidates:
"The race between Mr. McDonald and Ms. Marchione is the most expensive legislative primary in New York this year. Mr. McDonald has raised more than $926,000 in this campaign cycle, thanks in part to help from supporters of same-sex marriage, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who donated $10,300. Ms. Marchione, by contrast, has raised more than $180,000." -- The New York Times
The national agency which grants accreditation to social work courses is questioning Franciscan University of Steubenville over a course which lists homosexuality as a deviant behavior. Attention was drawn to the course by a group of Franciscan University alumni, identifying themselves as “Franciscan Gay Alumni & Allies”, who are demanding publicly that the university “revise its course descriptions and to stop contributing the culture of hate and ignorance.”
... In a written statement to LifeSiteNews, the university explains that the course uses the term “deviant” as used in the sociological sense, to mean “different from the norm.” In addition, the university stated, “Franciscan University follows Catholic Church teaching in regard to homosexuality and treats homosexual persons with ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2358) while holding homosexual acts as ‘intrinsically disordered.’ “
The statement goes on to say that the course description is an abbreviation of chapter headings from the course textbook, which is used by a number of other universities, including both secular and religious institutions.
Stephen Holloway, director of the school’s accrediting agency, Council on Social Work Education, in an interview with NPR (National Public Radio), stated the inclusion of homosexuality as a deviant behavior in the description “raises a red flag”.
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and fellow Republican Roger Wicker of Mississippi introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban same-sex weddings on military bases and allow military chaplains to refuse to officiate such unions.
Current policy is to follow state law on the matter of same-sex marriage.
Inhofe and Wicker said the bill, called the Military Religious Freedom Act, is an attempt to apply the Defense of Marriage Act to the Department of Defense in the wake of a policy change allowing openly gay men and lesbians in the military.
NOM-endorsed James Sanders ran against incumbent Shirley Huntley and Sanders carried the day by a decisive margin (Huntley's recent indictment probably played a roll as well):
Defeating incumbents in primaries is rare: but DiCarlo is just 42 votes behind, with over 500 absentee ballots to be counted. Remember Bob Turner?
Dear Marriage Supporter,
Today is primary election day in New York State.
It's a time of choosing.
Gay marriage passed in New York State by the vote of four Republican senators: Sen. James Alesi, Sen. Roy McDonald, Sen. Stephen Saland, and Sen. Mark Grisanti.
These four GOP senators who betrayed marriage believed the Human Rights Campaign sponsored lie: "no one has ever lost a seat voting for gay marriage." They counted on voters to have short memories for betrayal, to accept a done deal, to "move on."
Sen. James Alesi was the first to discover that this is not true. He announced his retirement from the Senate. One down, three to go.
It's very hard to beat incumbents in New York State politics. These four men who betrayed their voters on marriage were counting on that. They were counting on all the pro-gay marriage money they were promised to protect them for their failure to respect and protect their own constituents' values.
They chose the money over the voters, and the money rolled in.
The New York Times this week reports that Sen. Roy McDonald, for example, has raised an astonishing $926,000 while his gutsy underdog pro-marriage challenger Kathy Marchione has raised $180,000.
But voters matter more than money. If a candidate has enough money to get their message out, the voters get the chance to choose.
How little respect these four Republicans had for their own constituents' values has come through loud and clear from the voice of Sen. McDonald himself, who bluntly told The New York Times—a few days before the election—"I'm not in a party of a bunch of right-wing nitwits. It's Abraham Lincoln. It's everybody's included. And I feel that's very important."
"Right-wing nitwits." That's what he thinks of those of us who believe that God made marriage the union of husband and wife for a reason: so children can know the love and care of their mother and father. Sen. McDonald, let me remind you: Bluntness is one thing. Despising your constituents is quite another.
And as The New York Times noted, "The race has national implications:"
...gay-rights advocates, who have showered Mr. McDonald with campaign contributions, fear that his defeat would discourage Republican legislators in other statehouses from bucking their party to support same-sex marriage.
"The more that the advocates for this are able to tell Republicans that you can do this and live, then the greater success they're going to have," said Robert J. Bellafiore, a communications consultant and former press secretary for Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican. "But it's hard to convince somebody to take their first bungee jump if all they see at the bottom of the jump is a bunch of splattered bodies."
The Albany elites and the pro-gay marriage donors have done everything they can to protect these four Republican betrayers from the voters: showered them with silver, and redrafted district lines to favor their re-election.
We do not yet know what will happen in New York in these other three races, but look at how far we've come!
Just this April, The New York Times was pretending the pro-gay marriage votes by these Republicans was a ho-hummer, "But if the experience of New York's Republican dissenters teaches us anything, it is how quickly the political tide is turning, how quickly the 'untraditional' is becoming normal."
This week, they had to admit the vote for gay marriage is a really big problem for these Republicans.
Mr. McDonald, "expressed frustration that some Republicans seemed more eager to make the primary about same-sex marriage than, say, chronic unemployment. At a debate on Tuesday night at Russell Sage College in Troy...the audience was at its most boisterous when [gay marriage] was discussed."
As I told The New York Times, "Regardless of what happens, it is an utter lie to say, 'Vote for gay marriage; it won't have any effect.' ...I don't think any observer on the left or the right can say that's the case."
And that's a victory that you helped make happen through your support of the NOM NY–PAC. NOM PACNY is deeply involved in making clear to voters which candidates stand by their values and which despise them and betray their constituents.
In a backward tribute to NOM's key role in these races, an anonymous, pro-gay marriage organization is funding the ultimate dirty trick: a mailer purporting to be from the "National Order for Marriage" accusing Kevin Stocker, who is running against Sen. Mark Grisanti, of supporting same-sex marriage, a blatant lie.
Through it all we will continue to work, but we never work alone.
I recently had the honor of attending the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa.
"This is a time for heroes," I told them.
One of the great heroes for marriage in New York is Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long.
The Wall Street Journal reported today, as New Yorkers are going to the polls, "State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long is making good on his promise to challenge Republican Sens. Mark Grisanti of Erie County, Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie, and Roy McDonald of Saratoga County."
I thought you might enjoy seeing one of the mailers the Conservative Party is sending out against Sen. Mark Grisanti:
It's not just Republicans. NOM PACNY is deeply involved in two New York State Senate Democratic primaries too.
NOM is a non-partisan organization. We work with people in both parties to defeat those who betray the values of the people they are elected to represent, and to support those who defend marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
State Sen. Shirley Hunter, a Queens Democrat, voted against gay marriage in 2009 and campaigned for re-election as an opponent of gay marriage—only to turn around and vote for the gay marriage bill in 2011. She is now in a tight race for re-election, and faces a state indictment for misusing funds. Her challenger in the Democrat primary (whom we've supported) is James Sanders.
Perhaps the most interesting race in the New York State Senate primaries is a total longshot. A charismatic young Dominican-American named Manny Tavarez is challenging incumbent State Senator Gustavo Rivera in the Democratic primary. Tavarez is one of those rare politicians who doesn't hide his values. Manny Tavarez's website (under "family values") proudly and unequivocally states he's pro-life and pro-traditional marriage.
So another New York marriage hero, Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz, Sr., has, with NOM PACNY's help, cut radio ads for Univision endorsing Tavarez. NOM PACNY is also helping Sen. Rev. Diaz spread his message of support for Tavarez through phone calls in the district.
Like I said, it's a longshot. But if Tavarez comes close, watch as a new star for the pro-marriage Democrats in New York is born.
In New Hampshire, where incumbents almost never lose, two Republicans who betrayed marriage went down to defeat. A special round of congratulations is due to pro-marriage GOP gubernatorial candidate Ovide Lamontagne who will face pro-gay marriage Maggie Hassen in November.
Before I let you go, here are a few bits of news that you will find encouraging.
First, a new poll shows that Minnesotans are for marriage! In a new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, 50 percent of Minnesotans favor an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, while 43 percent oppose the amendment and 8 percent are undecided. (Historically most of those undecided voters break for marriage.)
Interestingly even younger people in Minnesota favor the marriage amendment, by an only slightly smaller margin of 48 percent to 42 percent.
Secondly, Forbes just covered a new bit of research on how consumers have reacted to companies that endorse same-sex marriage. Republicans have come to view these companies more negatively, on average, than Democrats. No surprise there. However, the big news (which you could never guess from the deceptively worded headline in Forbes), being pro-gay marriage hurts the branding of companies amongst Democrats as well!
Corporations take note: Voluntarily wading into hot-button social issues that implicitly denounce the values of their customers is not only bad morals, it's bad for business.
One final shout out: NFL champion Burgess Owens just urged voters to drop President Obama over his support for gay marriage.
It's an extraordinary act of courage for a great athlete, you can watch him here:
A time for choosing is upon us. It's a time for heroes. Thanks to every one of you who've contributed to these victories: whether its time, treasure or your fervent prayers for our country.
Never forget, my fellow heroes: With God, all things are possible.
Kalley Yanta responds to a common argument used against protecting marriage - that it will harm the economy:
"A new business report proves that's not true. A new CNBC study of America's top states for doing business shows that all 10 of the top 10 business-friendly states in America prohibit gay marriage. Furthermore, 9 of the top 10 have marriage protection amendments in their state constitutions that are similar to the one proposed here in Minnesota."