A political consultant and fund-raiser for the past decade, Charles Moran knows his way around the California Republican Party. As a politically active gay man he also knows his way around the larger LGBT movement in California. Moran is bringing his expertise together as the finance director for Republicans Against 8, a group dedicated to defeating Proposition 8, which would overturn the California supreme court’s recent ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. Despite the conventional wisdom, Moran thinks there are many Republican voters who will enthusiastically vote down the proposition as long as someone reaches out to them.
Advocate.com:
Let’s start with the basics. Has the Republican
Party endorsed Yes on 8?
Charles Moran: The California Republican Party
has endorsed Proposition 8 -- no giant surprise there, given
a lot of the personalities and looking at the people
who are pushing Proposition 8. That said, we’re
finding, in a lot of cases, whenever the party does
make an endorsement, it is not lockstep. Rank-and-file
members do not feel the need to be bound like that.
And obviously, the gay and lesbian movement in
California needs to be able to reach out to people who
may be disaffected with the Republican Party in their
endorsement to Proposition 8. Our response is: If
you’re voting for John McCain and you believe
in individual rights and personal responsibility and the
freedom to make decisions, and that’s why
you’re voting for John McCain, then you should
also be voting for no on 8. We don’t see the
correlation between being a Republican and voting yes
on 8.
The little trick there is McCain has come out in
support of 8. Is that a difficult position for you to sell?
It’s been obviously troubling for us, and
we wish the senator had either not endorsed or
endorsed in the other direction. The endorsement was
solicited from the Yes on 8 campaign, who actually announced
it. The McCain campaign did not announce it. It was
kept fairly hush-hush for quite a while. Sen. McCain
has endorsed Yes on 8, but is he barnstorming around
the country announcing it, toting his support of Proposition
8? Absolutely not. It’s something that’s
basically being used as a tool by the Yes on 8
campaign. I wouldn’t necessarily characterize
McCain’s endorsement of Proposition 8 as a
ringing cultural war clash between the Yes on 8 and No
on 8 people. He has been with us in the past on a number
of issues when we really needed him there. He has not come
out and done anything for the Yes on 8 people except
fill out their questionnaire. If that’s all he
is going to do, I’m quite fine with that.
What is your strategy as an organization?
There is a segment of the Republican population
that is not OK with repealing rights. And right now
that’s where we are. The Republicans were at
the forefront of giving women the right to vote, giving
blacks the right to vote, ensuring equal participation
in our system. Proposition 8 would be taking away
rights, and there are Republicans out there that are
not OK with this message. What we’ve done is identify
that segment. Generally, they are women between 30 and
60 years old that live in the central coast region of
the state who come from more moderate political
leanings. We’ve shown we can move these women from
yes votes to undecided or undecided to no.
We’re not talking about a huge number of people here,
but it is enough. And every percentage point we can move
in[to] the no category is one step closer to an
overall statewide victory.
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