When former Log
Cabin Republicans president Patrick Guerriero came
to San Francisco to visit the No on 8 headquarters, he
didn’t know he’d wind up staying to run
the biggest LGBT rights political campaign in history.
But with a measly million in the bank and the Mormon church
raising money hand over fist, No on 8 needed help, and
Guerriero stepped in to close the gap -- and, with any
luck, make history.
The
Reverend Jonipher Kwong helps with the phone bank.
The No on 8
campaign headquarters is located on San Francisco’s
Market Street in a space that was once the home of
Tower Records. Dance mix CDs and DVD displays have
been replaced with table after table of volunteers,
who on the last Wednesday before the November 4 election are
working their cell phones to encourage Californians to
vote no on the ballot measure. If passed, Proposition
8 would ban same-sex marriages in California just
months after the state supreme court voted narrowly to
strike down laws preventing gay and lesbian couples from
getting hitched.
Considering the
polls showing 8’s potential passage, the onslaught of
out-of-state money raised by the Yes on 8 campaign, and the
damage done by Yes on 8 ads featuring scared
parents and vulnerable children, I expect to find a
much more tense, scared office. But the receptionist
seems to represent the energy of place: focused,
businesslike, and surprisingly calm.
I’m there
to see Patrick Guerriero, who less than a month ago became
No on 8’s campaign director. The former
president of the Log Cabin Republicans, Guerriero now
runs the Colorado-based Gill Action Fund, an issue
advocacy organization founded by gay software mogul Tim Gill
that promotes LGBT political rights. After being
ushered into a smaller set of offices that are
nonetheless full with No on 8’s media team and a
“war room”–like conference call
among No on 8 staffers, Guerriero comes out of an even
smaller room, working his BlackBerry. It’s clear that
if you told Guerriero six weeks ago he would be in
California working full-time on the fight of his life,
he would have said you’re crazy.
“I just
came to visit in late September to check on the status of
the campaign and to offer support from Gill
Action,” he said. “Right about the time
I came here there was a growing awareness the Mormon church
had basically made an unprecedented financial
commitment to raising a record amount of money in a
social issue campaign.”
During the
summer, No on 8 organizers were estimating $20 million would
be needed to defeat the amendment, and with early polls
showing a lack of support for Proposition 8 and a
fairly muted opposition that hadn’t yet
launched a media campaign, the No campaign appeared on
track.
But the October
fund-raising report brought No on 8 supporters
cataclysmic news. Proposition supporters, with major help
from very organized out-of-state Mormon donors, had
raised $25 million and boasted $12 million in the
bank, while No on 8 had raised only $15 million with a
measly $1 million in the bank.
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