Last November, a six-term Democratic congressman responded to a “whisper campaign” by publicly revealing his homosexuality. He’s running for governor of Maine now, and one of his opponents, an Independent heterosexual, cried foul when an LGBT political activist group backed the newly outed Democrat, instead of him.
Independent candidate Eliot Cutler, an attorney and entrepreneur, says Democrat Mike Michaud, a card-carrying union member, has a weak record compared to Cutler’s on LGBT issues.
Cutler supported same-sex marriage when he ran for governor in 2010, two years before Maine voters approved it. He and his wife have raised and contributed thousands of dollars to LGBT causes over decades. Yet Maine’s largest gay rights group has endorsed the Democrat.
Cutler notes that Michaud, while in the state legislature, voted against civil rights for homosexuals 19 times.
“You know, I don’t care what your sexual preference is and I don’t care whether you’re out or not,” Cutler said. “That was a moment, those were 19 moments, when principle was important and he voted no.”
“It pained me … because I had been committed to these issues for as long as I can remember in my life” Cutler said. “And to lose the endorsement to someone who hadn’t, just because he is a) a Democrat and b) gay.”
And that’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it? The big special interest groups under the big party tent are less committed to their issues than they are to the Democratic Party. The party cares about those issues only so long as they generate contributions and votes.
The Democratic Party has managed to sleep around with everyone, gaze into his/her eyes and convince each that he/she is truly loved…not merely used.
And now Eliot Cutler knows that he, too, has been used.
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