Openly Gay GOP Presidential Candidate Karger Beats Out Romney, Others in Straw Poll
Fred Karger--the first openly gay presidential candidate in the nation's history--won the March 31 straw poll at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. Political analysts view the poll as carrying some significance.
Political commentary from New Hampshire station WMUR-TV noted that Karger, a long-time Republican political operative, is a GLBT equality activist. The article said that Karger has taken his message to college students--a strategy that paid off in the case of the St. Anselm straw poll. Karger was the only one of a crowded field of Republican hopefuls who made an appearance at the college.
"In the end, this was a big win for Karger who has been campaigning hard in the Granite State trying to make the argument that he should be taken seriously as a candidate," the article said. "This straw poll should help that."
"I am elated by this early show of support from the students, faculty and staff of St. Anselm's College," Karger stated in an April 1 news release.
"We campaigned at St. A's all week, which is exactly what I have been doing since I began this effort in New Hampshire back in February 2010," Karger continued. "My message of inclusion in the Republican Party and reaching out to younger people is working, and I will continue to be the one candidate who works to grow the Republican Party by campaigning right on college campuses.
"I was the first to declare my interest in running for President in April 2010, the first to start an exploratory committee in July 2010 and the first to file for President just one week ago at the Federal Election Commission Washington, DC," Karger added. "Now we are off to a great start in New Hampshire as the campaigning begins, and it is on to South Carolina and the first Republican debate to be held in Greenville on May 5th."
Karger edged out former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who ranked second in the straw poll. The poll's final results showed Karger taking 25% of the vote, with Romney trailing close behind at 23%. Donald Trump came in at a distant third place, with 8%, and other names associated with a possible Republican ticket in 2012 fared even more poorly: Tim Pawlenty received 7%, anti-gay former Sen. Rick Santorum took 6%, and Newt Gingrich took 2% of the poll.
"Fred Karger's margin of victory was slim," noted an Aril 1 posting at Gather.com, "he only beat Mitt Romney by 5 votes. Still, it was well earned victory that Karger has been working towards for months. He's visited New Hampshire 13 times over the past year, spending much of that time campaigning on college campuses.
"In recent months, he's stood alongside youth fighting to defeat a GOP sponsored NH House bill that would have deprived college students of the right to vote in the communities they live in while attending school," the Gather.com article noted.
Karger has long been part of the Republican political scene, having advised Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush, Sr., on their campaigns. But it was not until 209 that Karger emerged from the closet to declare publicly that he is gay, and to take on the political machine built by anti-gay groups such as the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the powerful, Mormon-linked group that played a key role in the bitterly divisive Proposition 8 campaign in California in 2008.
The narrow success of Proposition 8 rescinded the formerly existing right of gay and lesbian families to marry. The ballot initiative was found to be unconstitutional in federal court last year, but marriages have not been allowed to resume in California pending appeal.
Karger called out NOM after the group's role in California and, a year later, in a ballot initiative in which Maine voters repealed a law that would have extended marriage equality to gay and lesbian families in that state. NOM stood accused of having flouted election laws in both states.
Facing Off with Anti-Gay Groups
"NOM provided more than $1.8 million of the $3 million spent by opponents of marriage equality to pass Question 1--but it illegally failed to disclose where the money came from," text at NOM Exposed recounts. "Public disclosure laws create transparency by informing voters who is behind a campaign effort. Maine's law does this by requiring that any funds raised to support or oppose a ballot question be made public.
"NOM flouted this law, first by soliciting funds from donors to overturn marriage equality in Maine, and then by refusing to disclose the contributions. As a result, NOM deliberately hid from the public almost two-thirds of the total money the Yes on 1 campaign spent to run its deceptive campaign to overturn marriage equality," the text continues.
"Based on an initial complaint filed by Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, the Maine Ethics Commission launched a formal investigation into NOM's fundraising tactics in late 2009. NOM has refused to cooperate with the state inquiry each step of the way, stonewalling requests to turn over documents to the Ethics Commission."
The site's text noted that in the case of the Proposition 8 campaign in California, "While NOM and ProtectMarriage sought in court to avoid their legal obligations to report their donors, the Prop. 8 campaign also deliberately covered up the enormous contributions of NOM's close ally, the Mormon Church. In a November 2008 complaint filed with California's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate documented the Mormon Church's extensive undisclosed involvement in the Prop 8 campaign.
"Only after the election and after the FPPC announced that it would open a formal investigation did the Mormon Church finally acknowledge involvement in the Prop 8 campaign and disclose nearly $190,000 of previously unreported contributions."
NOM subsequently subpoenaed Karger in a legal case that sought to shield the group from having to follow election laws that required public disclosure of donor lists.
"In a lawsuit against state election officials, Proposition 8 supporters have targeted the man who first exposed the financial role the Mormon Church and the National Organization for Marriage played in the referendum's passage in Nov. 2008," reported EDGE on Dec. 7, 2009.
"In a subpoena, Yes on 8 and NOM want Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, to surrender all records associated with his investigation."
Noted the EDGE article, "Calling the scheme 'money laundering,' Karger asked ethics commissions in California and Maine... to look into his charges. Both subsequently launched investigations that are on-going."
Earlier this year, Karger aired a commercial in New Hampshire that directly took on NOM, reported Towleroad on Jan. 28. In the ad, Karger warned that NOM had targeted marriage equality in the Granite State.
"The National Organization for Marriage is going to lie to you," Karger says in the ad, which aired in seven cable markets around the Granite State. "They will say they're here to protect the sanctity of marriage. They're not."
Added Karger, "They're here to demonize gay people. Don't let them destroy one more life, cause one more teen suicide."
Karger told EDGE in an April 6 email that while he may have his jocular side, he is willing to adopt a harder stance when it comes to defending gay and lesbian families.
"No more Mr. Nice Gay, especially when it come to the evil National Organization for Marriage," Karger wrote. "NOM is out to destroy lives, and I am doing my best to slow them down.
"I have always been a fighter and will not hesitate take on my Republican opponents for President, too if they decide to go after the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender or Queer Community," Karger added.
Karger has acknowledged that his candidacy is a long shot, and has sought to make a virtue of what might otherwise be a weakness by injecting a sense of humor into his campaign. One early slogan underscored Karger's lack of name recognition, asking, "Fred Who?"
But the flood of media coverage that has followed Karger's victory at St. Anselm has started to change that. "I love the Fred Who? moniker," Karger told EDGE. "It says so much about me, that I am not well known and that I have a sense of humor. We have it emblazoned on out New Hampshire and Iowa T-shirts, our stickers, notepads and our pin packaging. Every time I give one of these away, people smile." But as his profile rises, the joke may no longer be a propos. "I did switch out Fred Who? on our business cards to Fred Karger for President," Karger said.
Meantime, Karger has found himself made welcome by the national GOP.
"They rolled out the red carpet," Karger said of a meeting with Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Jeff Larson. "I've been getting a lot of resistance from the establishment, particularly in Iowa," added Karger. "So to have the chairman, vice chairman and chief of staff welcome me with open arms was very gratifying."
Karger is only the latest face in a growing list of conservative and Republican GLBT groups and individuals. Conservative gay advocacy organization GOProud has created national headlines by co-sponsoring CPAC, the annual convention of the nation's conservatives--and inciting disaffection among anti-gay elements of the extreme right-wing fringe.
Gay Republican group Log Cabin Republicans gained a new level of stature and respect when the suit it brought in federal court against the anti-gay law that bans openly gay patriots from serving in the Armed Forces resulted in a ruling that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" violates Constitutional guarantees.
As with many other issues related to GLBT equality, supporters of DADT repeal tend to skew younger, though as time goes on acceptance for sexual minorities has crept into older age brackets. Karger told EDGE that his attention to younger voters is no accident.
"I relate well to younger people, I always have," the openly gay candidate wrote. "They are open to my candidacy gay and straight alike, unlike older people who are uncomfortable with the 'gay' thing and some in the LGBTQ establishment.
"For the most part College and High Scholl students could care less whether someone is LGBTQ or straight," Karger added. "They are very different than the generations ahead of them.
"There was a buzz around St. A's last week about me and my being the first out gay candidate for President in history," Karger continued. "I wear my rainbow flag lapel pin wherever I go--it's a good conversation starter. We are making such incredible headway because so many young people coming out to their friends and families. That is why we are seeing poll numbers moving in the right direction for equality in this country. It is getting better, a lot better!"