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Pro-Marriage GOP Candidate Wins in Massachusetts 3/4/2004 He beats homosexual activist's former chief of staff. Republican Scott Brown, whose opponent labeled him a “right-wing extremist,” won a special state senate election in Massachusetts on Tuesday. Brown beat Angus McQuilken, who was chief of staff to former state Senator Cheryl Jacques, who now heads the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest homosexual pressure group.
“The race was seen on Beacon Hill as a gauge of [Governor Mitt] Romney’s clout and the strength of the gay marriage issue,” the Boston Globe reported.
Brown beat McQuilken by only 291 votes out of a total of 37,000 cast. Democrats initially demanded a recount, but it is unclear whether they have grounds to get one. The difference would have to be 185 or less to trigger a recount, according to a state election formula.
Members of the Coalition for Marriage, of which Concerned Women for America is a member, said the Brown victory was a clear victory for marriage.
“This is a huge win,” said Sandi Martinez, Massachusetts State Director of Concerned Women for America. “It was definitely a referendum on the marriage issue because Brown’s opponent was extremely pro-gay and had his predecessor’s machine behind him. But the pro-family people turned out in enough numbers to score an upset for Rep. Brown.”
Several coalition members said they had talked with legislators and staff members and that the vote had “sent a shockwave through Beacon Hill.”
Unlike McQuilken, Brown supports a proposed state constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The amendment was crafted in the wake of the November 18, 2003 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that struck down the state’s marriage policy.
On March 11, the Legislature will convene as a constitutional convention to take up the proposed amendment and several other issues. On February 11, the Legislature had met as a constitutional convention and defeated three amendments that protected marriage while creating civil unions. The original amendment defining marriage and barring civil unions sponsored by Democratic Rep. Phil Travis has yet to come up for a vote.
CWA Massachusetts has a team distributing talking points to all legislators every day leading up to the March 11 convention.
The Boston Globe noted that Brown’s victory was even more remarkable than merely a Republican winning in heavily Democratic Massachusetts.
“Brown’s strong tally came despite the odds that the Democrats stacked against him,” the Globe reported. “Democratic Senate leaders scheduled the election for the day of the state’s presidential primary day, when Democrats were expected to head to the polls to vote for hometown favorite U.S. Senator John F. Kerry. With about three times as many Democrats as Republicans showing up at the polls, the date was expected to wipe out Brown’s built-in advantage. As a state representative, he represents 20 percent of the district.”
Robert Knight is director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America.
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