crossposted at dailykos.
Markos said it well. An anti-gay ballot initiative actually failed. That is rare indeed. Let me give you a little background. In 1998 and again in 2000 this same issue (anti-discrimination or ‘gay rights’) had been on the ballot and Failed. Both times the right wing was using the issue to try and raise their clout by dividing and trying to scare the voters. If you pass this it means gays will control your children in school. This will lead to gay marriage and in this campaign, they trotted out the idea that men would use female restrooms, wear dresses to teach children the ‘alternate’ lifestyle and gay marriage, gay marriage, gay marriage. Both times the right wing won in Maine, albeit, narrowly (once by only 4,000 votes state wide) This time was different.
This time equal rights supporters organized themselves differently. Instead of running on the issue of gay rights, they didn’t splinter into different groups but started one group, Maine Won’t Discriminate and stuck to the anti-discrimination theme. They had a Dem and Repub co-chair, field organizers and worked the media to not call the issue ‘gay rights’. A pretty good plan and they will want to take credit for last night’s success but in reality the leadership was not strong and in fact, very inept. More on that later.
Meanwhile the so-called Christian Coalition mobilized its forces. Spreading dis-information through the churches, emails, telephone phone trees and much of the Republican party. Fortunately, enough Repub voters voted against them this time. As you can imagine it was not a civil campaign (but not as nasty as say New Jersey). Again, please remember Maine is basically a conservative state and hardly a leader on social issues, especially gay rights.
In fact, for most voters, they wish they didn’t have to deal with this issue. Now, let’s move behind the scenes of the campaign to our county. We had run a highly effective 2004 campaign, improving Dem performance dramatically by doing the obvious. Local, volunteer phone ID and solid GOTV. We carried our county for Kerry by 3,565 vs 260 in 2000. In fact, it basically made the difference in Kerry winning the 2nd CD in Maine.
So we lost the nation but scored big in the county. Towns that had hardly ever voted Dem, voted Dem. We kept our little election office open and forged ahead. It was fewer than 10 core people that made the difference. Onward and upward we figured. We’ll beat the right wing. Our wonderful unpaid county coordinator started the Voter ID phone bank in late August, we fundraised, contacted volunteers and got ready to roll.
Well, we certainly experienced a drop in interest. It was pulling teeth to get people to phone, to man the office, to get out signs, you name it. Some nights no one showed up, others only one or two. Still she kept at it. Key people went on vacation, cross country travels and one even went to MS for Sep & Oct (that was me) and still she slogged on. A few new people rose to help but it was her persuasion and stick to it work that made the difference. Come election week she had pulled togetehr a decent Voter ID effort and almost every town had a crew to poll watch and then call our voters to vote.
Meanwhile, the state campaign was bogged down. Inept management, internal conflicts,etc. There are 16 counties in Maine, that’s all, 16. Yet the campaign mgr didn’t deign to talk to the counties. He missed a key campaign debate and sent out people to canvass at 6PM on election day (a tactic that doesn’t work in Maine)The media persisted in calling it ‘gay rights’ and the polls showed a decent lead for our side but that mirrored the last two elections. A lead in the polls that didn’t make it to the booth. Were we to be out organized by the wackos?
It will take a few days to analyze the results but the state campaign did a few things well. They stuck to the message that it was about discrimination, they did put families, ministers, regular people front and center in their media. They did canvass in the larger towns. WE’ll see if our local efforts resulted in a greater margin of victory. I think so.
So, after all this, about 40 people gathered in our little HQ in our largest town in the county, population 7,000 to await returns. Awaiting returns means a combination of our folks calling from the polls after the count to relying on newspaper web sites. Town clerks call in results to the papers. When you go to vote in Maine, in most towns that means going to the town hall, there’s only one precinct per town and most of the time you know pretty much everyone there, the PTO has a bake sale, it’s all a very friendly but well run operation. And yes, we use paper ballots. In larger towns they are opti-scanned but Diebold style is against the law. So we wait, we are anxious, we want the hard work validated.
As a few towns report in, the optimism rises. Cheers as we take a couple of towns we have lost before. 374-216 from one town is a big one. We are hopeful. We talk of the future, of the relief we are starting to feel. I corner a prospective leg candidate and make a heavy pitch. She can’t make the run, has legit reasons but darn. Her husband ‘might’ consider it. It is hard to get good people to run. It is never the right time because they are good people, over committed, etc. We’ll keep working it.
The room erupts as the two leaders from one town, where they got the chamber of commerce to endorse our side, which led to a conservative town voting our way, come in. We cheer again as Bush goes down in Virginia and by 10pm we know we are winning state wide and will wake up the next day in a state where an anti-gay ballot initiative actually failed. A big relief and encouragement for the future. Today, Maine can stand tall and welcome diversity. It was about a 55-45% win statewide, probably a 10-15,000 vote margin and turnout will go over 40%, very high for an off year election with this as the lead issue. This is what America can look like, we can turn the tide, we are, and we will. Make no mistake, local action, local volunteers, and dogged persistence make the difference. Many people helped but our coordinator made the difference. Hat’s off to her. She deserves it. Thank you for your time and hope it gives you a flavor behind the scenes.