Tag: LGBT Politics

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2012/07/1-million-attack-on-tammy-baldwins-senate-campaign-produces-little/

Two separate half-million dollar attack ad campaigns targeting U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) in the Wisconsin Senate race may have produced zip for the special interest groups that launched them.

New polling numbers suggest the presumptive Democratic nominee’s standing in the race has actually improved over the last few weeks.  Baldwin is now tied with two GOP challengers and leads two others, according to the firm Public Policy Polling.

For months, television ads backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a corporate lobbying group in Washington, and another group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers, slammed Baldwin’s progressive record, but with little apparent effect.

Baldwin has now pulled even with former Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican who has been leading the race for the GOP nomination.

In a head-to-head match-up, Baldwin and Thompson are tied at 45% each, according to PPP.  An earlier poll from Marquette University showed Baldwin trailing Thompson by 7 points.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute today announced it has received a grant of $800,000 from the David Bohnett Foundation to give senior LGBT leaders the opportunity to attend executive education programs at the Harvard Kennedy School.   The Victory Institute’s David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellows program, now in its tenth year, enrolled its 100th fellow this summer.

Graduates of the program include some of the country’s top LGBT political talents, including Houston Mayor Annise Parker, New York State Sen. Tom Duane, Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez and San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros.

http://www.gaypolitics.com/2012/07/10/bohnett-pledges-800000-to-lgbt-leadership-program/

Tammy Baldwin, who has a very real chance of becoming the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the United States Senate, stood with a 73-year-old potato farmer in his fields here the other day and asked him: “How hot am I?”

For the previous half-hour, the farmer had been boastfully showing Baldwin, 50, his equipment: the sorting machine, the stacking machine. And now, in response to her question, he nudged his thermometer close to her. I do mean thermometer, an infrared one, with which he’d just determined that the temperature of the dirt on this scorching July afternoon was 136 degrees.

http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2012/07/12/contenders-hot-lgbt-prospects-office

Luminaries like Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin are leaving the House of Representatives after this session—the former is retiring and the latter running for the Senate—but in congressional and state-level races across the country, more LGBT candidates than ever are campaigning. There are so many candidates, in fact, that it can be difficult to keep track of all the contenders. By early June the Victory Fund, which works to elect out leaders to political office, had endorsed 113 LGBT hopefuls for this election cycle. From a prospective out lawmaker in Texas to a bisexual congressional candidate, check out the hot prospects for 2012.

22 Latino organizations back pro-LGBT campaign

More than 20 Latino civil rights organizations announced on Sunday that they have endorsed a campaign designed to bolster acceptance of LGBT-specific issues among Hispanics.

The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Cuban American National Council, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund are among the 22 groups that have backed the “Familia es Familia” campaign.  The initiative will provide affiliated organizations with trainings, videos, publications and other resources in both English and Spanish on marriage rights for same-sex couples, discrimination and other issues. “Familia es Familia” will also use Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks to further engage Latinos on these issues.

Ingrid Duran of D&P Creative Strategies, a D.C.-based public relations firm that helped create the campaign, told the Blade that “Familia es Familia” will provide “tools and resources to the community to start having conversations about LGBT issues.” She added the campaign deliberately decided to focus on families because of the central role they play in many Latinos’ lives.

“Family unity is extremely important,” said Duran. “We felt that the first line of entry into the community to talk to families.”