After Carly Fiorina won the California Republican primary in June, the anti-gay hate group National Organization for [Heterosexuals-Only] Marriage issued a news release taking credit for her win over socially moderate Tom Campbell:
Certainly there were many factors that played into that dramatic shift — by that time, pro-life and pro-family advocates had joined together in the effort to stop Tom Campbell, Fiorina campaign ads were blanketing the airwaves, and Sarah Palin had endorsed the Carly Fiorina — but only NOM’s May 19-21 outreach to 600,000 GOP primary voters can explain the dramatic, overnight reversal in the polls.
Of course, NOM’s claim that its massive gay-baiting blitzkrieg tilted the primary to Fiorina is, to put it politely, unsubstantiated. What we do know is that Fiorina — who reportedly received $100 million when she was fired as CEO of HP — massively outspent Campbell, a college professor who is also a former state fiscal officer and U.S. congressman. Besides, if anything, NOM’s efforts to sideline Campbell helped Sen. Barbara Boxer, who, in this purportedly anti-incumbent, anti-Democratic year, would likely be polling behind the mild-mannered professor right now. As it is, she has led Fiorina in every poll since Labor Day.
Fiorina entered the general election with the same challenges that have faced Republican candidates since the 1990s. She is far to the right of the mainstream in the state. For example, if elected, she would be the first anti-abortion U.S. senator from California since Roe v. Wade became law in 1973. She’s also out of step on gay marriage, which is now supported 50 percent to 45 percent, according to recent polling. She has also had to fight the headwinds of California’s demographics. Registered Republicans are significantly outnumbered by Democrats, and independent voters tend to be, like Tom Campbell, both socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
So, desperate to moderate her views, she has spent the last three months not only distancing herself from Palin, who has a 69 percent disapproval rate among California independents, but also carefully avoiding drawing attention to her connection to NOM.
This new ad from the Human Rights Campaign not only puts a spotlight on Fiorina’s ties to the New Jersey-based hate group, it uses NOM supporters’ own words to illustrate the depravity of their hatred toward gays. Perhaps someone in the media will see the ad and ask Fiorina to clarify her association with NOM and repudiate their extremist views.
