8 — OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — OCTOBER 1999 POLITICAL VIEWS @ (men more to the senate FROM THE KINGDOM BY BRENDAN HADASH he fate of all gay and les- T bian civil rights for the rest of our lifetime is at stake. The next president and Senate will choose up to three Supreme Court justices, who make deci- sions on everything from same- gender marriage to gay and les- bian rights to serve in the military to whether gays can be Boy Scouts. Thirteen senate races in the country will primarily decide who runs the senate. In five of them, incumbent senators have retired to leave them open, and those are the ones I’ll focus on. Of course, many races are still in comments about candidate records on Human Rights Campaign reports from the 101st 103rd and 105th congresses. The five open seats are in New Jersey, Florida, Nevada, Rhode Island, and New York. Because of the difficulty in defeating an incumbent, these will be the most hotly contested races in the coun- try. Of the five, three will not pro- duce any great change in support for gay and lesbian rights: one race looks good for us, and one looks bad. The Good, the Bad, and the lnconsequential In New Jersey, Republican Governor Christine Whitman, Out in the Mountains flux. Candidates are still declar- ing their intentions to run or dropping out of races, so I’m sticking with the likely candi- dates and opponents. I’m basing .\l -ast11‘i11g Sticcess One l1l\’t‘Sl()1' At 21 Time We know that no matter who you are or what you do for a living, you want to see your family secure, your children edumted, your retirement assured. We're ready to help with a wide range of investments and a profes- sionally trained Financial Advisor who can tailor a program to your needs. At Morgan Stanley Dean Witter", we measure success one investor at a time. Call or visit us today. GINGER WILLIAMSON Financial Aduiror Gateway Plaza, 30 Main Strut Burlington, VT05401 300-869-9500 802-363-7728 802-865-2137 Fax MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITIER Ilupblqbanfihehnrvtennnlntlluphdeyhun WIuLCn.ndIuvknIII&IlIIu‘l1¢oWI-'fi& 1-.“ Elfillfiififlyfliha who supports gay and lesbian rights and was favored to win, has announced that she will not run. This leaves former Governor Jim Florio (D), who signed the gay‘ rights bill into law, as a like- ly replacement for the supportive Senator Laugtenberg. Bob Grant running as a right-wing indepen- dent makes it hard for unsupport- ive Republican U.S. Reps like Bob Franks or Dick Zimmer to win. In Rhode Island, we have two allies squaring off: Mayor Lincoln Chaffee (R) and U.S. Rep. Bob Weygand (D). The mayor’s father is retiring Senator John Chaffee, who has voted with us 100 percent. Weygand, who also has a perfect record of supporting our issues, is leading in the race. Florida is our good news state. Retiring Senator Mack (R) voted with us only an average of 21 percent of the time. In a June poll, U.S. Rep Bill Nelson (D), who voted with us twice as much as Mack, led right-wing U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum (R) by a 48 percent to 33 percent margin. Meanwhile, Nevada is our bad news state. Retiring Senator Bryan (D) voted for us two-thirds of the time. Things looked good while attorney general Frankie Sue Del Papa (D) was nearly tied in the polls with U. S. Rep Johns Ensign (R,) who voted for us only 25 percent of the time. However, she’s dropped out of the race. This leaves multimil- lionaire Ed Bernstein, a Las Vegas trial attorney and talk show host who has never held public office, as the likely Democratic candidate. New York is my heartbreak VERMONT'S FINEST - Herbs Vitamin ( onnection ' V”°”““S Q C U C C O . 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Both candidates in this race, Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton, are good on our issues, but both would have probably voted for DOMA. Giuliani was keynote speaker at the Log Cabin Republican annual meeting of gay and lesbian Republicans. Hillary’s opinions probably do not differ from those of President Clinton, who has been the sup- portive president that we have ever had — even if he did sign DOMA. There is probably not much difference between the support that Rudy and Hillary would give us. But there is one important dif- ference.» As a Republican, Giuliani will vote for homopho- bic Trent Lott for Majority Leader of the Senate. If you recall, Lott was the senator who compared gays and lesbians to alcoholics and kleptomaniacs. Of the five, three will not produce any great change in support for gay and lesbian rights: one race looks good for us, and one looks bad. What does that mean? The Majority Leader assigns senators to the judiciary committee, who will rule on who can become Supreme Court justices. Lott is likely to stack thejustice commit- tee with conservatives, who will only allow justices opposed to our rights to join the Supreme Court. The Democrats currently hold three of the five seats discussed, and lead in three of the races. In order to take over the Senate, they would have to win six seats, which would likely mean win- ning New York and five of the eight close races I’ll discuss next month. One of those races includes one right here at home in Vermont, a race that might well be the deciding vote that will decide the future of gay rights for the entire country. V Brendan Hadash is minister of St. Johnsbury Universalist Church. J. Alison Hilber. B.A.,TP 802-658-53l3 lcc|abody@cs.com Change kow you see no+.lv\ow you look Body Positive Self-Acceptance Workshops for women n III-Ellkli VII! 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