Gay activists support Fitz-Gerald in 2nd District race

Legislative record nets backing over Polis, who is gay

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Jared Polis and Joan Fitz-Gerald are among the candidates seeking the 2nd District Congressional seat.

Joan Fitz-Gerald

He's gay and she's straight, but Colorado's top gay activists didn't hesitate when it came time to endorse in the 2nd Congressional District race.

They've backed former Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald over Jared Polis, a former state Board of Education member who publicly announced last year that he is gay.

At a fundraiser Thursday night at the Bonnie Brae home of activist Scott Coors and his partner, Dave Hurt, gays young and old wrote checks to help Fitz-Gerald's campaign.

"Kick Jared's ---," one donor wrote on the memo line of his $250 check.

"This is obviously an interesting race for gay people," said Scott Miller, whose partner, Tim Gill, is well-known nationwide for helping liberal and gay causes.

"There's an expectation we have to support our own, and there is a sense of disappointment that we didn't endorse Jared."

But Fitz-Gerald's legislative record could not be ignored, Miller and Gill said.

"I think no one has done more for the gay community legislatively than Joan Fitz-Gerald," Gill told the crowd.

Polis has been endorsed by the National Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who is openly gay.

He pointed out that he also has been endorsed by members of Emily's List, who traditionally back women candidates. His supporters include former Denver Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and former U.S. Senate candidate Josie Heath, of Boulder.

"No one should support a candidate just because they are gay, just as no one should support a candidate just because they are women," Polis said.

Fitz-Gerald, of Coal Creek Canyon, and Polis and Will Shafroth, of Boulder, are seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2nd District. Pundits predict the race will be one of the costliest and ugliest primaries in the nation in 2008.

It's a race filled with twists, from gay activists bypassing the gay candidate to a look back at 2004.

That's when four wealthy Democrats ponied up more than $2.1 million to help their candidates in Colorado. Democrats won control of the state legislature for the first time since 1962, and Fitz-Gerald became the first female Senate president in state history.

Among those she has to thank is Polis, who, along with Gill, Rutt Bridges and Pat Stryker, helped bankroll the victory.

Now Gill, Bridges and Stryker are all endorsing Fitz-Gerald.

"You want someone who is smart. You want someone who is direct. You want someone who is honest. And Joan is all of those things," Gill said. "Politics is about many things. One of those things is loyalty. Joan has done so much for all of us that it would be disloyal of us to support anyone else."

bartels@RockyMountainNews.comor 303-954-5327

• December 15, 2007

  7:06 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RS writes:

  The number one reason to vote Republican? The Democrats! Decades ago they supported working people, now they are the party of the wealthy and self-interested.

• December 15, 2007

  4:51 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jackwoehr writes:

  >no one should support a candidate just because they are women

  Poor Jared Polis, not only is he losing the gays, but with pronouncements like that he probably lost the English majors the same day.

• December 16, 2007

  11:38 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  me2 writes:

  Good one jackwoehr.

• December 17, 2007

  2:16 p.m.

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  DRocks79 writes:

  Jared hasn't lost the gays, just the bourgeois gays who do little but throw their weight around bullying the rest of the community into submission. The middle-class, normal gays support Jared and what he represents...change from the Establishment. Joan IS the establishment, and the money-gays are part of that crowd. Of course they support her. She has the special-interests in her pocket. I just hope the regular gays (i.e. voters) get out there and support CHANGE.

• August 13, 2008

  11:32 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Clintatl writes:

  "The number one reason to vote Republican? The Democrats! Decades ago they supported working people, now they are the party of the wealthy and self-interested."

  So tell me again about the $520 loafers McCain wears. Oh and also about the 10 (count them on two hands folks) houses he and his extremely wealthy wife have. And how about all of those wealthy lobbyist running his campaign...

  Yeah... a real man of the people.