U.S. senator
Dianne Feinstein has filmed an ad urging voters to vote
against California's Proposition 8, the proposed
constitutional amendment that would overturn the state
supreme court's May decision legalizing gay marriage
by banning same-sex couples from getting married.
No on 8 campaign
staff announced the new ad during a conference call with
reporters Tuesday, in which they also said their
fund-raising totals had reached $32 million, giving
them a narrow $1 million to $2 million lead over Prop.
8 supporters.
Patrick
Guerriero, the No on 8 campaign director, called the
response from LGBT activists and straight allies --
Democrats and Republicans, big donors and small --
"overwhelming."
"We've now
received [money from] more than 53,000 donors who have
given gifts of under $100," he said, "and we've more than
doubled the number of donors in the first 20 days of
October."
The ad from
Senator Feinstein comes one month prior to the 30th
anniversary of the murder of gay activist and San Francisco
city supervisor Harvey Milk. Feinstein, who was
president of the city's board of supervisors at
the time, immediately became San Francisco's mayor
when Milk and Mayor George Moscone were shot.
Feinstein,
speaking directly to the camera, says:
"In my lifetime,
I've seen discrimination. And I see it again in
Proposition 8. Proposition 8 would be a terrible mistake for
California. It changes our constitution. Eliminates
fundamental rights. And treats people differently
under the law.
"Proposition 8 is
not about schools or our kids. It's about
discrimination, and we must always say no to
that. No matter how you feel about marriage, vote against
discrimination.
"And vote
no on 8."
Organizers of
Tuesday's conference call said they had felt a
momentum shift since a call two weeks ago when No on 8
was about $10 million down and losing the fight in
public opinion polls. Guerriero said polls
now invariably show the race is a dead heat between the
two campaigns.
But they warned
that an onslaught of activity from the opposition was on
its way, with social conservatives initiating a $1 million
match campaign Monday.
"We expect them
to raise a quick couple of million dollars over the
next couple of days for their final stretch drive, meaning
the No on 8 campaign, and our friends and allies and
supporters, have to ramp it up one more time to keep
pace with them," he said.
Kate Kendell,
executive director of the National Center for Lesbian
Rights and a member of the No on 8 executive committee,
noted the fierce overtones the battle had taken since
evangelical leader Chuck Colson referred to the vote
as "Armageddon" in a New York Times editorial and
Family Research Council's Tony Perkins tagged it as
more important than the presidential race.
As a lawyer who
isn't typically involved in political campaigns, Kendell
said the level of distortion by supporters of the ban was
"not only dispiriting but shocking."
She also singled
out a letter the opposition sent to Equality California
donors, demanding that they withdraw support from No on 8
and contribute an equal amount of money to the Yes on
8 campaign.
"You just can't
imagine that in almost any other campaign," she said,
using the example of campaign officials for Sen. John McCain
sending letters to Sen. Barack Obama's supporters demanding
their support and threatening some sort of retribution
if they failed to comply. "It's really pretty
extraordinary."
Guerriero
outlined three courses of action people could take in the
next week to help defeat the initiative: donate money,
volunteer, and talk to their friends, family, and
neighbors about what's at stake with the vote.
He said the
campaign needed to keep the pace of raising almost $1
million per day between now and the election. "Now we
know that this is the most intense and the most
expensive social issue campaign in the history of the
country," he said.
No on 8 is also
trying to fill 5,000 volunteer slots to help get out the
vote on Election Day, and people who want to help can sign
up on its website. The
site also includes a template to help people e-mail
letters to their friends and relatives about
Proposition 8. (Kerry Eleveld, The Advocate)
