20 years to the day, November 5, 1994, since the Republicans first took control of the Senate — and thus control of Congress — since World War II, history repeated itself last night.
While many LGBTs might be feeling in the dumps about the Republicans taking control of the Senate and the Charlie Baker/Karyn Polito team topping the ticket in Massachusetts — there are some silver linings to the mid-term elections.
1) The first openly gay Attorney General in the nation was elected – Maura Healey
Maura is the nation’s first LGBT attorney general. As usual, Massachusetts is leading the way. Not only is she is the first out attorney general, but she also garnered the second highest vote count of any candidate in the Commonwealth on Tuesday — 1.275 million. Only Sen. Ed Markey got more, at 1.375 million.
Let me underscore the importance of this. Maura Healey is now the chief prosecutor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and in charge of prosecuting haters, scofflaws, and general a**holes. Awesome. Go big Lezzie!
2) Stan Rosenberg is going to be the new Senate President — the first openly gay Senate President in Massachusetts’s history
Yes, the midterms were depressing, but one of the best silver linings for 2015 is that Sen. Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) is slated to become the next Senate President. Sen. Rosenberg came out a few years ago and has been a stalwart leader on all equality issues for over two decades in the Senate.
Rosenberg is sure to make an impact in his first year in office. We wish him and his partner, the adorable Bryon Heffner, well. We’re rooting for you!
3) There will likely be three lesbian Committee Chairs in the next Massachusetts Legislative session:
With the re-election of openly gay State Reps. Kate Hogan (D-Stow), Liz Malia (D-Boston), and Rep. Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown), the 2015-2016 legislative session is likely to see all three women become Committee Chairs.
Rep. Malia and Rep. Peake had no one contesting them in their liberal districts. Congrats on your re-election ladies.
Rep. Hogan, however, had a tough race against Republican Tea Partier Paddy Dolan in her district, which is quite purple and incorporates Stow, Bolton, Maynard and Hudson. Dolan was also helped out by numerous negative mailings from the right-leaning PAC Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. However, on Election Day, Hogan smote Dolan by 20 points. Congrats to Rep. Hogan!
I am sure all three of these legislators will be great leaders in the State House for the next two years!
4) A gay Republican was elected to Congress — maybe! (But, it wasn’t Richard Tisei):
Carl DeMaio, the open-gay and much-vilified candidate from San Diego, had not only the HRC against him, but even the US Chamber of Commerce endorsed his opponent, incumbent Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego). He was even booed at the gay forum by the gays.
However, he was ahead by 752 votes yesterday against incumbent Rep. Peters. The race has not yet been called — so stay tuned. Conservative Republicans and Speaker Boehner are going to have to deal with him if he wins. And that should make you smile.
5) Eileen Duff in Massachusetts and Chris Pappas in New Hampshire beat haters to win re-election to the Governor’s Council and Executive Council respectively
Duff is a firebrand on the North Shore, which of course we would expect nothing less of coming from an elected lesbian. Duff was first elected in 2012 to the Governor’s Council, which vets judges, commutations, and gubernatorial pardons. Duff has been one of the saner voices in the otherwise specious meanderings of her fellow councilors as they have vetted Gov. Patrick’s judicial appointments. Expect her to keep it up for the next two years. Good luck Councilor!
Pappas is a rising star in New Hampshire politics. The demure and adorable 34-year-old Manchester native ran against an anti-LGBT candidate that wanted to use “the gay lifestyle as a litmus test.” The Executive Council must approve all state contracts above $25,000 and all gubernatorial appointments. Pappas’s district, which includes Manchester and the surrounding towns, is very purple, but he worked it and even got the endorsement of the conservative newspaper, Foster’s Daily Democrat. Congrats Chris! (FYI – he’s single boys!)
6) Scott Brown LOST a US Senate seat race for the 2nd time in three years
Scott Brown was a consistent anti-gay voice in the Massachusetts legislature as a state senator and continued that track record into the U.S. Senate. He even tried to stop gay marriage from becoming legal in Washington D.C.
Thankfully, the voters of New Hampshire shared Massachusetts’s feeling about Brown and resounding reelected Sen. Jeanne Shaheen — a staunch equality voter — to the U.S. Senate for another term. People in two states celebrated Tuesday night. Karma is a b*tch.
7) All LGBT members of the Congressional Equality Caucus were re-elected
While most of the equality caucus was secure in their reelection bids, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema had a tough road with ultra right-winger Wendy Rogers. Sinema raised over $3 million for her reelection bid with help from the Victory Fund. On Tuesday, she prevailed soundly over Rogers, with 54% of the vote.
The rest of the re-elected LGBT Congressional members are:
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin)
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado)
Rep. Mark Takano (D-California)
Rep. Sean Patrick Mahoney (D-New York)
Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island)
8) South Carolina Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham and Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-Louisiana) were also re-elected:
I’ll let you guess why this is on the list.
9) There is a high likelihood that Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Ted Cruz are going to have a big ole’ girl fight over the Majority Leader seat and over just about every other issue for the next two years.
Start popping the popcorn. This should be good.
10) All eyes are on the Charlie Baker/Karyn Polito administration
The LGBT community is watching you. And we’re going to go all diva on you if you make one wrong move.
Charlie, you had the first LGBT ad of the Governor’s race — with your brother. So we know you’re all sensitive and stuff. We’ll be glad to give you a roadmap on how to avoid the land mines and actually get to know what the needs of the community are before that happens.
We await your phone call.
In summary — this should be a definitive call to arms for the LGBT community to pay attention to the 2016 Presidential elections.
Its time to step up and pay attention people — this should be a definitive wake up call to come out from underneath our complacency that everything is fine because gay marriage is becoming legal in 30+ states.
Half of America still doesn’t like it. The fight isn’t over. And if an anti-LGBT presidential candidate actually wins — we’re screwed.
