59 percent for full civil unions. Texas. Seriously.

Texas matches most of the rest of the country when it comes to increased rights for same sex couples: voters there are against gay marriage, but support some form of equality in the form of either marriage or civil unions. Only 29% say they think gay marriage should be legal, while 57% believe it should be illegal. But 59% support either gay marriage or civil unions with only 38% completely opposed to any legal recognition.

Check out the details here. We shouldn’t be surprised – after all, Governor Rick Perry’s anti-gay “Strong” ad went over like a lead balloon even in the Lone Star state. While Log Cabin Republicans firmly believe that civil marriage is the truly conservative answer, majority support for civil unions in one of the reddest states of the nation is exciting evidence that we are nearing a watershed moment for LGBT equality. We have always believed that, regardless of political affiliation, Americans are a fundamentally fair people who believe in freedom for all. While we’re not there yet, polls like this show that a day is fast approaching when committed, loving same-sex couples will receive the legal recognition they deserve.

Posted: January 27th, 2012 under GOP Progress, In the News, In the States, Issues in Focus.

Ken Mehlman, former Republican National Committee chairman and Log Cabin Republican, is in the “Live Free or Die” state today advocating for New Hampshire legislators to protect the freedom to marry. Ken, who with Log Cabin Republicans New York chapter and the New Yorkers United for Marriage coalition was a key part of winning marriage equality in New York last year, was published in today’s Union Leader:

“Live Free or Die” isn’t just the official motto for a great state. As the 62nd Republican National Committee Chairman, I think it’s a mantra our party should live by. I hope that New Hampshire legislators will remember this slogan and reject proposals to strip citizens of their right to marry.

The party of Lincoln and Reagan should stand first and foremost for freedom. It’s part of our heritage and ought to be part of our DNA. Freedom for Americans of all races is why our party was founded. And our greatest moments — from the unbelievable economic recovery unleashed by lower taxes and less regulation to the fall of the Berlin Wall — resulted when we promoted freedom.

Stripping away the right of adults in New Hampshire to marry the person they love is antithetical to freedom. If we really believe (and we should) that every citizen is endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, shouldn’t this include the right to marriage?

Read the whole thing, and pass it on! The Republican Party has a proud history of standing for liberty, particularly in New Hampshire. It would be a shame to see that legacy betrayed by stripping away the freedom of Granite State residents to marry, especially after thousands of couples have chosen to make this commitment to one another. Marriage strengthens families, strengthens communities, and has made New Hampshire stronger. Polls show even New Hampshire Republicans have no appetite to change the law, much preferring to keep the focus on growing the economy. There’s no reason to turn back now, and Log Cabin Republicans salute Ken for his efforts.

Posted: January 26th, 2012 under GOP Heroes, GOP Progress, In the News, In the States, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (the same governor who made headlines last year for calling for a truce on social issues) was chosen to deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s latest speech. While maintaining a firm respect for the Presidency and its occupant, Governor Daniels provided a refreshing and pragmatic assessment of the real state of the Union.

Daniels confronted President Obama’s failure to lead on the economy, as unemployment lingers around 9 percent, while also skillfully articulating the Republican belief that “there is nothing wrong with the state of our Union that the American people, addressed as free-born, mature citizens, cannot set right.” Log Cabin Republicans agree.

The President did not cause the economic and fiscal crises that continue in America tonight.  But he was elected on a promise to fix them, and he cannot claim that the last three years have made things anything but worse: the percentage of Americans with a job is at the lowest in decades.  One in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, did not go to work today.

In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt.  And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead.  The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends.  No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours.

The President’s grand experiment in trickle-down government has held back rather than sped economic recovery.  He seems to sincerely believe we can build a middle class out of government jobs paid for with borrowed dollars.  In fact, it works the other way: a government as big and bossy as this one is maintained on the backs of the middle class, and those who hope to join it.

You can watch the whole speech here. This November Republicans will offer voters a clear choice, by honestly addressing the challenges facing our nation and offering real, pragmatic – Governor Daniels would say, mathematical – solutions for our economy. Log Cabin Republicans emphasize that our party’s message will come through clearest if, as Governor Daniels said, “Republicans in 2012 welcome all our countrymen to a program of renewal that rebuilds the dream for all.”

Posted: January 25th, 2012 under Elections, GOP Progress, In Focus, In the News.

Tomorrow marks 1000 days since Congress last passed a budget, leading many to point to President Obama’s lack of fiscal responsibility as well as Congress’s partisan gridlock as the factors that have led to the budget’s delay. Speaker Boehner’s office has released ad listing the consequences of allowing the federal government to operate without a budget, including 35 consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent, higher taxes, and fewer jobs.

Having a budget for the federal government is a basic requirement for maintaining fiscal responsibility. In failing to pass a budget for 1,000 days, Democrats are undermining one of the most fundamental functions of governance. Of course, Democrats are blaming Republicans.

In response, Log Cabin ally Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform lays out what President Obama should address in tomorrow’s State of the Union address:

President Obama is sure to try to blame Republicans in both chambers for his administration’s failed economic policies. However, on the 1,000th day without a Democrat budget, the President will be forced to explain how anyone else is to blame; it is his party’s Senate leaders who have ignored their basic Congressional responsibility for almost three years.

A short look back on the fiscal recklessness of the last few years shows that if President Obama is upset about budget hostilities in Washington, he has no one to blame but himself. If he is serious about fixing the ailing economy, the President should demand Senate Democrats get back to work.

Of course, given the choice between election year politicking and the interests of the American people, we all know which the president will choose. Thankfully, Americans will have a choice in 2012 to return control of the Senate to a GOP that is committed to not only passing a budget, but cutting and balancing it.

Posted: January 23rd, 2012 under Democrats, In Congress, In the News, Issues in Focus.

For years, many Republican lawmakers and executives have avoided supporting marriage equality, not because they don’t support equal rights, but because of the political ramifications of coming out for equality. However, as four state senators from New York have proven, supporting pro-LGBT legislation can actually prove to be an asset, according to the New York Times.

In New York’s  marriage debate last summer, Republican state Senators Roy McDonald,  James Alesi, Stephen Saland, and Mark Grisanti all broke with their party and voted in favor of the marriage bill, allowing it to pass narrowly, and making New York the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage. Almost immediately proceeding the vote, the head of the National Organization for Marriage,  Brian Brown, announced that the organization would actively recruit and fund candidates to challenge the senators in the GOP primary.

For their support of the bill, many political commentators expected the senators to both at the ballot box as well as in the form of campaign contributions from conservative activists. However, their situation has proven to be quite  the opposite.

State Senator Roy McDonald, who had raised less than $20,000 in the second half of 2009 for his 2010 reelection bid, managed to rake in nearly $450,000 for 2012, 27 times more than what he collected during the same period in 2011. The same is true for the three other GOP state senators that voted for gay marriage, with many of the contributions coming from supporters of LGBT rights.

In addition to campaign contributions, GOP allies for the LGBT community could open itself up to a new block of voters. Young people, who overwhelmingly support gay rights, could take a second look at the GOP and in doing so, allow the GOP to sell its message of fiscal responsibility and limited government while coming across as a party that also supports equality. The same is could be true for members of the LGBT community who, despite being more conservative on other issues, see gay rights as the most pressing issue, forcing them to vote Democratic. Should GOP lawmakers and executives come out in support of marriage equality, they could pick up the support of conservative LGBT members who rank gay rights as their most important issue. 

Should Republican politicians embrace marriage equality, they could see political benefits beyond what traditional political convention would lead one to believe. As the four state senators in New York have proven, supporting marriage equality can and will pay out politically to Republicans willing to stand up and be allies.

Posted: January 19th, 2012 under Elections, GOP Heroes, GOP Progress.

Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA), an ally in the fight for LGBT equality, announced yesterday that he would not seek reelection in 2012. Platts stated that he is leaving Congress to spend more time with his children and as a result of his own self-imposed term limit.

I have long believed in the importance of term limits and have sponsored twelve-year term limit legislation each term since first being elected to Congress.  As such, I will not be seeking re-election to Congress and will leave office at the end of this year – my twelfth year as Congressman for the 19th District.

The news comes as a loss to the LGBT community as Platts has been a supporter of gay rights throughout his congressional career. More recently in 2009, Rep. Platts was one of a small number of Republicans that voted for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against an individual on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. He also voted in favor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act of 2011 to protect LGBT students from being excluded from participating in any federally-assisted education program because of their sexual orientation.

Redistricting in Pennsylvania will make Platts’ new district slightly less Republican. Despite this, Platts has never won an election with less than 64 percent of the vote and is expected to be succeeded by a Republican in 2012. With his retirement, the LGBT community will lose a Republican ally in the House, but in retirement he is sure to remain a powerful voice for gay rights from within the GOP.

Posted: January 18th, 2012 under Elections, GOP Heroes, In Congress, In the News, Uncategorized.

Throughout the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama promised to end the hyper-partisanship that has plagued Washington. Remember all that talk of coaching Little League in the Blue States and gay friends in the Red States, and a so-called “post-partisan” presidency? Obama promised order, civility, and comradery and that he would be open to dialogue from the Republican minorities in both houses of  Congress. He hasn’t delivered. Today, Politico writes, DC is more divided than ever.

The hard truth is that Washington next year will look indistinguishable from the one Obama warned against during his election-night victory speech, when he called on Republicans and Democrats to “resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

His relationship with Republican lawmakers is broken, the victim of grand expectations and hardball political tactics, irreconcilable policy differences and perceived personal snubs.

Obama’s early promises to invite lawmakers to the White House for weekly cocktails and congressional leaders for monthly meetings sound oddly quaint. His days of personally courting rank-and-file Republicans for votes are long gone. The broad majorities that senior Obama aides once predicted for major legislation never materialized.

Examples of the president’s hyper-partisan approach to politics include Obama-care and the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which should have been the vehicle for repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Despite grave concerns raised by House and Senate Republicans over the inclusion of the individual mandate, the President and congressional Democratsforced through a costly and unpopular bill – today support for Obama-care stands at a paltry 38 percent.  Log Cabin Republicans will not soon forget the drama of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s pointed exclusion of Republicans from the amendment process seriously jeopardized repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and led to the failure to pass a Defense Authorization Act for the first time in over forty years, risking funding to the United States military and national  defense interests.

President Obama has become the poster child for partisanship in a Washington that is more divided than ever. Those seeking to mend the division in Washington and truly get to work on solving our nation’s problems know now that President Obama is not their candidate.

Posted: January 17th, 2012 under Democrats, In Congress, In the News, Uncategorized.

This morning, former Utah governor, U.S. Ambassador to China, and GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman Jr. announced that he would be dropping out of the GOP primary to endorse former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney five days before the South Carolina primary.

Huntsman sees Romney as the GOP’s best hope at defeating President Obama, and is stepping aside to avoid damaging Romney’s chances at winning the general election. One Huntsman advisor said: “There was no sense standing in the way of Romney. Every vote we took in South Carolina and Florida was from him.” Log Cabin Republicans’ Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper to issued this statement in response to one of the stronger supporters of LGBT equality exiting the race:

“Huntsman supporters, myself included, are sad to see such a solid pragmatic conservative step out of the presidential race.  Governor Huntsman noted that America is more divided than ever and that we are suffering an economic deficit and trust deficit.  Log Cabin Republicans concur, and for our nation to move forward together with new leadership and unite, the Republican Party must first unite.  A big tent approach is necessary for beating Obama.  Politics is about addition.”

The move by Huntsman is expected to boost Romney’s already strong lead in South Carolina. According to Public Policy Polling, 38 percent of Huntsman’s supporters have the former Massachusetts governor as their second choice, followed by Paul at 19, and Perry/Gingrich at 8. A weighted average from polling analyst Nate Silver for fivethirtyeight has Romney’s chances at winning next Saturday’s primary at 86 percent, 10 percentage points higher than before Huntsman’s announcement.

Building on his momentum, Governor Romney has recently held several small town hall style forums throughout the Palmetto State and has surrounded himself with several prominent Republicans, including Rep. Tim Scott and SC Governor Nikki Haley, to bolster his image as a candidate able to unite various ideological groups within the GOP.  These efforts will make him a seasoned candidate for the remainder of the primary as well as for the general election.

Recent attacks by liberal super-PACs targeting Romney’s record LGBT rights are further proof that Democrats are threatened by the former Massachusetts governor’s ability to appeal to voters in the general election. His fiscally responsible, pro-business approach to economic issues as well as his pragmatic stances on social issues make him a strong candidate, and a natural fit for former Huntsman supporters.

Posted: January 16th, 2012 under GOP Progress, In the News, In the States.

While marriage equality has occasionally been center-stage on the national level, with President Obama’s “evolution” on the subject apparently stalled and GOP presidential candidates confronting the question in debates and on the campaign trail, the real action is happening in the states, where recent weeks have shown some very interesting developments.

• In Washington State, the governor has thrown her support behind passage of a marriage equality bill. Two Republican state senators, Steve Litzow and Cheryl Pflug, have already stepped forward in support of the freedom to marry. According to the Seattle Times, two additional first-term Republicans representing suburban districts – Sens. Joe Fain of Auburn and Andy Hill of Redmond – also left open the possibility of supporting the bill, saying they want to discuss the issue with constituents, and two Democrats have declared their opposition to marriage equality. Republican Attorney General candidate Reagan Dunn has also said he will back efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, and .

“I am a traditional Republican,” explained Litzow. “When you think about gay marriage, it’s the right thing to do and it’s very consistent with the tenets of being a Republican — such as individual freedom and personal responsibility.”

‎”I have been a longtime supporter of human equality,” said Pflug. “I do not feel diminished by having another human being experience the same freedom I am entitled to exercise. I would feel diminished by denying another human the ability to exercise those same rights and freedoms.”

• In New Hampshire, exit polling from the GOP presidential primary reveals that 62 percent of voters hold “liberal” or “moderate” position on social issues including same-sex marriage. Despite certain Republicans pushing a bill to repeal marriage equality in the Granite State, an October poll by the University of New Hampshire found that state voters overall opposed the marriage repeal bill two-to-one, and among likely GOP primary voters, only 39 percent favor taking away gay couples’ freedom to marry. Several Republicans are stepping up to defend marriage equality, including New Hampshire’s former Republican National Committeewoman Ruth Griffin (who also served in the New Hampshire State Senate and in the State House) and Craig Stowell, a United States marine and Republican co-chair of Standing Up for New Hampshire Families.

• In New Jersey, a bill to enact marriage equality is moving through the state legislature. While the Republican champion of the 2009 marriage bill, Senator Bill Baroni, has sinced taken a post at the New Jersey Port Authority, GOP support remains and Log Cabin Republicans are confident that additional Republicans will step forward. Also worth noting, Governor Chris Christie, who while supporting civil unions has previously suggested that he would veto a marriage bill, has since gone mum on the subject of what he would do if a bill came to his desk.

• In Maryland, marriage equality advocates are gearing up for a second try after last year’s effort to pass marriage failed when Democrats backed away in the state house. Republican state senator and Log Cabin Republicans “Uncommon Courage” award winner Allan Kittleman remains a staunch supporter of the freedom to marry. By contrast, the Democrat State Senate President Mike Miller chose to describe marriage equality for gay and lesbian Americans as “an attack on traditional families,” repeating the language he used against a gender identity nondiscrimination bill last year.

Senator Kittleman’s speech at the 2011 Log Cabin Republicans National Convention in Dallas is an inspiring look to the future we’re fighting for, and a stronger, more inclusive GOP. Watch the video below, and spread the word – in the states, Republicans are staying “I do” to marriage equality.

Posted: January 13th, 2012 under GOP Heroes, GOP Progress, In the News, In the States, Issues in Focus, Log Cabin In Focus.

Here at Log Cabin Republicans headquarters, we’ve noticed an interesting trend over the last few days. From Huffington Post open letters to fundraising blasts from the Stonewall Democrats to the bloggers over at Wonkette, liberals are falling all over themselves in their frenzy to tell gay people that the Republican Party doesn’t like us. As the only Republican organization dedicated to representing the interests of LGBT Americans and our allies, let us assure everybody that Log Cabin Republicans have, indeed, heard of Rick Santorum and his unfortunate record when it comes to individual liberty. That sad record is a significant part of why, when all is said and done, a Republican Party that wants to retake the White House will not have Rick Santorum as its nominee.

That said, we question why liberal gay activists are working so hard to keep LGBT Americans scared into believing they have no choice about who they can support politically. The answer, via today’s Washington Times (not a liberal news source by any stretch of the imagination), is that “the Republican Party is embracing the LGBT community,” and that has Democrat activists shaking in their boots at the prospect of losing one of their most reliable sources of campaign cash, the GayTM.

Writing about Bruce Harris, an openly gay African-American Republican, who was sworn in on January 3, 2012, as the mayor of Chatham Borough, NJ, urban conservative Shirly Husar says:

It is an alliance that most people would find unlikely. They are called sell-outs, turncoats, and brainwashed, but with all of the perceived strangeness of the union and all of the rhetoric over same-sex marriage, more LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) persons have been joining the Republican Party…

This does not surprise many of us in the GOP. Despite the back-and-forth battle over same-sex marriage, the Republican Party has been quite open to the LGBT community for several years…

Specifically regarding Log Cabin Republicans:

This organization is one of a growing number of LGBT organizations working toward building a stronger, more inclusive Republican Party. They want to do this (shockingly) by promoting the core values of the Republican Party: limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, lower taxes, free market economics, and a strong national defense. They stand firm on these principles, while not abandoning their desire for freedom and equitable treatment of gay and lesbian Americans.

Read the whole thing. Inclusion wins – Log Cabin Republicans having been saying it for a long time, and now it’s not just us. And to those who are afraid of a Republican Party where LGBT Americans are welcome? Shame on you. Freedom means freedom for everyone, and we won’t be forced into a liberal closet because you want to curry favor with your so-called Democrat “friends” by promising unthinking loyalty to the liberal line. We know who we are and what we stand for. Do you?

Posted: January 11th, 2012 under Democrats, Elections, GOP Progress, In the News, Log Cabin In Focus, On the Lighter Side.