|
From DallasVoice.com Top Headlines (Flash) LGBT vote appears to have helped the former first lady claim victory in the Keystone State
Either way, in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, Clinton stayed competitive in a part of Philadelphia in which the Obama campaign had hoped to score big points. Clinton won the Keystone State primary April 22, 55 to 45 percent — a margin political pundits agreed give her campaign the support it needs to continue fighting for the Democratic presidential nomination. She had been expected to win the state, even though polls suggested her margin of victory had been slipping badly in the waning days of the increasingly negative battle between the two candidates. But the Obama campaign strategy had included, in part, an effort to win as many votes as possible in Philadelphia’s inner city neighborhoods in an effort to counterbalance the votes it knew Clinton would pick up in the rest of the state. It was that strategy that apparently fell short in the city’s two heavily gay wards — Wards 2 and 5. Where Obama won 65 percent of the overall vote in Philadelphia, he won only 58 percent in Ward 5 and 60 percent in Ward 2. Still, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign “couldn’t be happier with our margin out of Philadelphia,” and LaBolt said he believes the 30-point margin of victory in that city was in part “a reflection of our strong LGBT outreach efforts.” While Pittsburgh’s gay population is not as concentrated as Philadelphia’s, the wards with some gay visibility — Wards 14 and 15 — split, with Ward 14 going 60 percent for Obama and Ward 15 going 55 percent for Clinton. Clinton showed no signs she intends to consider withdrawing before the August Democratic convention, a reality that reportedly makes party officials anxious. In her victory speech Tuesday night, she did not mention gays among various groups that she highlighted, but Obama did: “We can build on the movement that we started in this campaign, a movement that’s united Democrats, Independents, Republicans, young, old, rich, poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight.” Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, said he had impromptu greetings with both candidates following a Democratic party dinner in Philadelphia last week. He said Clinton, who gave him a 10-minute phone interview, recalled the interview as being “fun.” He said Obama recognized his name and briefly discussed Segal’s complaint that the candidate had done no interviews with local gay press. “We agreed to disagree,” said Segal, in an editorial April 18, “but he wanted to make a point, to all around us, that we ended as friends and kept trying to get me to knock fists with him … .” Segal’s editorial said Obama’s position for change “does not resonate in the LGBT community” but, ultimately, Segal did not endorse either candidate and, instead, urged readers to examine the endorsements of gay groups around the state. The gay Democratic Club in Philadelphia — Liberty City Democratic Club — endorsed Clinton and two weeks before the primary had a group of members going door to door in the city’s gay neighborhood to solicit support. But a Patriot-News story profiling the gay vote in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said gays were split, so much so that the Central Pennsylvania Stonewall Democrats decided against endorsing. Clinton had visible support from the LGBT community in Pennsylvania. The campaign had hired a full-time gay staffer to serve as the Pennsylvania LGBT outreach director there. That director, Shawn Werner, organized nearly a dozen gay community events — from debate-watching parties to a “pub crawl” of gay bars by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Clinton’s daughter Chelsea. Now, all eyes turn to North Carolina and Indiana where primaries take place May 6. In North Carolina, long-time gay activist Mandy Carter says the LGBT community there “is just like the general community in being divided between Obama and Clinton,” and adds that her sense is lesbians are “probably” more behind Clinton. “But we all agree,” sayd Carter, “that we'll support whomever wins the nomination.” ©2008 Keen News Service © Copyright by DallasVoice.com |
