http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76291.html
Richard Tisei is used to occupying the loneliest corners in politics.
As the Republican Senate minority leader in Massachusetts, he was one of just five GOP lawmakers in the statehouse, often on the lopsided losing end of big votes. As an openly gay Republican, he publicly split with then-Gov. Mitt Romney when gay marriage became legal in the state, making him an even rarer breed in a party that has a big hang-up with same-sex marriage.
But forget all that this year.
Realizing that winning is what ultimately matters in politics, national Republicans have embraced Tisei in his race against vulnerable Democratic Rep. John Tierney, tapping him for their elite “Young Guns” program, believing he has a chance to break through in the bluest of blue states.
If elected, he would be the first openly gay Republican elected to the House since Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe retired, and the first Republican to come out prior to an election.
But he doesn’t want his candidacy to be just novelty — outside of social issues, he’s got a serious Republican record, never once voting for a broad-based tax increase in the 26 years he served in the state Legislature. He helped pass the state’s sweeping welfare reform act in 1993, and although he supported the Massachusetts health care law, he’s pledged to repeal “Obamacare.”