Hochul Win a Defeat for NOM

Democrat Kathy Hochul's victory over Republican Jane Corwin in a special election for an upstate New York congressional seat was also a victory over antigay groups that supported Corwin.

The National Organization for Marriage, which fights the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples, spent nearly $6,000 on voter calls in support of Corwin, the blog Good as You reports. Also, Corwin appeared at an event this month for a conservative Christian group called the New Yorker's Family Research Foundation. The foundation's president, the Reverend Jason McGuire, has likened same-sex marriage to child abuse and asserted that gay New York State legislators, such as Sen. Tom Duane and Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, are going "against God's word" by supporting marriage equality and face "an eternity in hell," Good as You notes.

Hochul was elected Tuesday to fill the seat in Congress left vacant by the February resignation of Christopher Lee, who, although married, was reportedly soliciting sexual encounters with other women, including transgender women, on Craigslist. Lee had an antigay voting record. Hochul's election in the conservative district is seen as a major coup for Democrats.