(Empirical evidence from mikect that anti-marriage equality and anti-choice stances are huge political losers in Connecticut, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved. - promoted by tparty)
Last year, the Family Institute of Connecticut Action Committee, the
political arm of the anti-gay advocacy organization, endorsed 64
General Assembly candidates,
expressing its preferences in one-third of
all state legislative elections. However, its electoral
priorities were much more narrowly defined. It contributed to
only ten
state legislative candidates in the 2006 election cycle and most likely
targeted its volunteer and communications energies on these anointed
few. A review of these contributions and the FIC's
organizational
finances unveils the candidates who
were most ideologically loyal to the FIC's homophobic and anti-choice
agenda, as well as the organization's multi-faceted record
of failure and wasted
cash.
The
group lost seven of its ten targeted races. Two of three
winning candidates were long-term incumbents, giving FIC only one
new elected ally among its top picks - Sam Caliguiri. His win
had
much less to do with FIC than with the $214,000 he raised,
more
than any legislative candidate in the state (half came from GOP PACs,
lawyers and lobbyists).
Candidate
PAC
donations
Opponent
Outcome
Matthew
Daly
$4,192
Sen.
Edith Prague
Lost
by 39%
Edna
Garcia
$3,698
Ed
Gomes
Lost
- got 12% in 6-way
special election
Greg
Hannan
$2,000
Sen. Ed Meyer
Lost
by 29%
Sam
Caliguiri
$2,000
David
Zoni
Won
by 10% (open seat)
Dan
McCann
$1,900
Rep.
Mike Lawlor
Lost
by 26%
Eric
Thompson
$1,582
Sen.
Gary LeBeau
Lost
by 44%
Chris
Oliveira
$1,300
Sen.
Andrea Stillman
Lost
by 21%
Rep.
Al Adinolfi
$900
Phil
Brewer
Won
by 22% (incumbent)
Rick
Giordano
$300
Sen.
Andrew McDonald
Lost
by 25%
Rep.
Minnie Gonzales
$250
Frank
Dejesus
Won
by 44% (incumbent in primary)
Total
$18,122
($11,100 in cash)
70%
of candidates
lost by average of 31%
Totals include non-cash, in-kind contributions to Daly
($2,842), Garcia ($1,698), Thompson ($1,582), McCann ($300), Giordano
($300), and Oliveira ($300) in
the form of printing, lawn signs, mailings, or the FIC donor
list. Average % loss of losing candidates does not include
Garcia.
More details on the FIC
record and finances below.
The FIC monetary contributions typically made up only a small
percentage of the
candidates' total campaign funds. One exception was former
State
Representative Edna Garcia, who received most of her Senate campaign
cash (54%) from FIC, and lost badly in a
multi-candidate
special
election. This total does not count about $1,700 in in-kind
printing
and lawn signs that FIC provided to her. (In their campaign
finance
report, FIC did not state that the in-kind expenses
supported
Garcia, an apparent violation of reporting rules.) Given the
feisty support for
marriage equality
demonstrated by her opponent, Senator Ed Gomes, in this year's
Judiciary Committee hearing, it's no surprise that Gomes was
targeted.
In the 2006 election, Dan McCann received 9% of his funds
from FIC and in 2004, he was virtually a creature of the PAC,
receiving 78%
of his campaign cash from them (not counting $2,600 worth of in-kind
billboard ads). (As a side note, in its only 2005
municipal election contribution, FIC gave $500 to
Gary Jenkins, a New Haven independent and former Democrat who ran
against Mayor John DeStefano.)
Fairness and opportunity
win
FIC's failures in its targeted races are a reflection of its
broader failure to exploit and foment homophobia for political
advantage. The Love Makes a Family PAC won 77% of their
endorsed
races
(40 of
52). Of the 11 priority candidates who received LMF PAC
contributions, seven won (and LMF's unsuccessful candidates lost by
narrow margins). In the head-to-head matchups against
candidates
endorsed by
FIC, LMF candidates won 70% of
the time (14 of 20). Every Family Institute
challenger
lost,
and they could only introduce two new allies in the
legislature through open seats.
LMF added eight new pro-marriage legislators. (Background
on the
matchups.)
Any way you measure it, pro-equality candidates came out ahead in 2006:
Family
Institute
Love
Makes a Family
Endorsed
incumbents
who won
93%
100%
Endorsed
challengers &
open seat candidates who won
9%
40%
Priority
candidates (PAC recipients)
who won
30%
64%
Vote
margin of priority candidates
(PAC recipients) who lost
their
elections (ie, FIC lost badly)
-31%
-6%
Candidates
who won in
head-to-head FIC/LMF races
30%
70%
New
allies elected to legislature
2
8
In 2004, FIC spent more in cash contributions than in 2006, and
eight of ten PAC recipients lost their elections.
Let this be a lesson to legislators who are currently on the fence on
the issue of marriage equality. I don't think
that civil
rights were at the top of the minds of most voters. I do
think that
the kind
of candidates who
support marriage equality -- those who are open-minded and committed to
fairness, equality, and opportunity -- have broad appeal to voters and
volunteers.
True believer candidates
who gave
Among the larger contributors to the FIC PAC was Martha Dean, a $250
donor who was the Republican candidate for
Attorney General in 2002 (she lost badly, 34% to 66%). True
believer and endorsed Representative Al Adinolfi chipped in with $100.
But no candidate could surpass the profligate generosity and
ideological devotion
of Rick Giordano, who lost by 25% to Senator Andrew McDonald.
He
gave far more than he got from the PAC, making $1,000 contributions in
both 2004 and 2006. More significantly, he and his wife gave
FIC's non-political wing a $27,500
contribution through their
Giordano-Lampitelli Family Foundation in 2005. He also spent
$70,000 of his own money on his campaign.
Bigotry can be a cash cow
The PAC raised $41,476 in the last cycle and spent $42,170.
Less
than half of its budget went to candidates. Much of
the rest
was spent on printing and mailing through Comstock Marketing, a mailing
house in Cromwell. The public records do not state how most
of
these expenses were targeted.
The PAC had to begin this year working itself out of a financial
hole. It ended 2006 with $87 in
cash on hand and more than $5,000 in unpaid expenses. It has
not
yet paid off most of these expenses.
Setting aside the PAC's modest fundraising and its record of failure,
FIC has demonstrated that bigotry can pay off
financially, if not politically.
The FIC's main organizational branch, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit,
enjoyed a $422,000 budget in 2005. This was a three-fold
increase
over its 2001 budget (and 33 times its tiny 2000 budget). FIC
Action, the Institute's 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, had $80,000 in
2005 income; its largest expenses were for
newsletters and salaries.
Brian
Brown, FIC's executive director, richly rewarded himself,
gobbling up
one-quarter of the main organizational budget with his $103,000
salary. Adding in
payments from the FIC Action wing, he earned a cool $109,000.
Peter Wolfgang, the organization's lobbyist and frequent public face,
drew
down a more modest sum.
A compilation of income totals for this three-headed monster reveals
that in 2005, a total of
a half million dollars was devoted to
attempting to relegate Connecticut's gays and lesbians to second-class
citizens and
control women's bodies and reproductive decisions.
In contrast, Love Makes a Family, a 501(c)(4) organization, had
$278,000 in 2005 revenues and its full-time director went unpaid, even
as civil unions were approved by the state legislature. Its
PAC
raised $18,210 in 2005, and $68,614 for the electoral cycle.
[In
2006, LMF may have caught up, raising $463,000 for its lobbying arm
and hiring more paid staff. In addition, LMF formed the Love
Makes a
Family Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, last year.]
Given the nearly two-to-one funding advantage for FIC's
non-electoral wings, it is all
the more remarkable that gays and lesbians achieved civil unions
legislation in 2005 and that FIC remains an utterly ineffective fringe
group that only news reporters can take seriously.
FIC's failure streak in the electoral arena has
extended to
the legislative sphere.
It trumpets a 22%
track record
in achieving its legislative agenda over the last
two years. Whether it was enactment of civil unions, stem
cell
research, an initial DOMA amendment, or a civil unions referendum --
seven of nine key votes went against them. It has
similarly continued
to lose ground in the domain of public opinion, which has grown
more favorable toward marriage equality and gay civil rights.
2005
organizational income
Love
Makes a Family
Family
Institute
501(c)(3)
n/a
$421,983
501(c)(4)
- lobbying
$277,944
$80,499
PAC
$18,210
$9,469
Total
$296,154
$511,951
Results
Nation's
first civil unions law without a court order
Nothin'
but an overpaid director
With Connecticut's new system of public financing of campaigns, FIC's
direct contributions to candidates are likely to become infrequent,
except for those right-wing ideological stalwarts who refuse public
funds on principle, or perhaps some marginal candidates who can't
raise qualifying contributions. However, it can
continue the
activities which consumed the majority of its expenses in the past --
printing, mailing, advertising, and mobilizing its base.
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