Blogcabin California

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY NARROWLY VOTES TO ADOPT THE SAME VIEW ON MARRIAGE AS CLINTON AND OBAMA

The California Republican Party this weekend voted to keep language in the platform that states marriage is between one man and one woman. The platform does not call for a constitutional amendment. This is the same position taken by Sens. Clinton, Obama, Boxer, Feinstein and McCain. The vote to strip this restrictive language from the platform completely narrowly failed by only nine votes.

The California Republican Party (CRP) adopts a new platform every four years. This weekend, the CRP is meeting in San Francisco. The committee was faced with two platform drafts. One draft - the green platform (so called because it was printed on green colored paper) eliminated all references to social issues and thus the anti-gay language. The second platform draft - the white platform - was a slight rehash of previous platforms. The attempt to start with the green draft more inclusive platform was defeated by only eight votes. (The Platform Committee has about 200 members).

Attempts were made to amend the platform draft to strike some of the language, such as the vote on the marriage language. Those efforts failed by the same 8-10 votes in each case. The attempts to eliminate or change the “pro-life” language in the platform failed overwhelmingly 2-1.

So, apparently the GOP is less anti-gay than it is anti-choice/pro-life. Major kudos to Len Lanzi of Los Angeles for leading the charge to change the platform. A switch of 4 or 5 votes could have made the difference. Those of you who are on the committee and didn’t show up now understand why we say the way to win is simply by showing up.

The important thing about the Platform is to remember that no candidate really runs on the Party Platform. The media does stories and as I told them often today, the Democrats use the CRP Platform more than the CRP does — mainly against Republicans in swing districts and in statewide races. Changing the platform would not have changed the words or actions of anyone on either side in future campaigns. It just makes it harder to win races so we can stop the liberal agenda of raising taxes and government burden on business. And remember, if the vote was this close in the Party everyone knows is completely dominated by religious conservatives, just imagine how supportive the real voters of the Republican Party are for equality.

 If you thought you couldn’t make a difference, just ask yourself how things might be different if just 4 of you had put your name on the ballot as the Republican in one of these seats and had the vote on this committee. We can do this, but only if you help. (The deadline is next week to file and run)

Again, we’re winning the fight for the heart and souls of the mainstream of the Republican Party. Now, if the anti-gay conservatives would realize it, we’d be able to get back to electing Republicans again… Four years ago there were no votes even allowed to change the language. The rhetoric was worse. And we were defeated almost overwhelmingly in any attempts to affect the platform. We all applaud the efforts of Len Lanzi, Mark Patrosso, Shane Patrick Connelly and Ralph Denney — Log Cabin GOP Candidates who sat on the Platform Committee and showed up - for taking this fight to the Committee.