This blogpost is a follow-up on a previous blogpost. See: NOM's Nonsmear Robo-Smear.
At DCAgenda.com, a recent report on the Brown-Coakley race for the US Senate is entitled, "NOM Robocalls Attacking Pro LGBT Mass. Senate Candidate". It describes a political message reportedly from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) as a smear against Martha Coakley.
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The National Organization for Marriage is apparently sending out robocalls in Masschusetts smearing a pro-LGBT Democratic Senate candidate for supporting same-sex marriage and encouraging a vote for the Republican nominee in an upcoming election.
Here is the gist of their published description of the reported robocall:
The auto call features a male voice, which is clearly a recording, asking if you support marriage as being only between a man and a woman. If you say “yes,” then the voice urges you to vote for Scott Brown as the only candidate with a proven record of supporting marriage as between a man and a woman. The call says that his opponent is a “radical” supporter of same-sex marriage who has opposed letting the people decide and has used taxpayer dollars to support the agenda of same-sex marriage.
Here is the gist of the Coakley campaign's response to the reported robocall:
This just reaffirms what we already knew - Scott Brown is the favorite candidate of ultra right-wing conservatives. Marriage equality has been the law of the land in Massachusetts for nearly six years, and it’s supported by a majority of voters who know first-hand that the sky hasn’t fallen just because we have marriage equality.
As I write this, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has not confirmed that they've made robocalls, nor that this is their message for the special election. [See updates at bottom of this blogpost.] I don't work for NOM and I am not part of Brown's campaign for the US Senate. However, I deplore the use of identity politics (of any kind) as a trump card.
So, as a marriage defender, I left the following comment (corrected for typos) at the DCAgenda website:
NOM is not “ultra right-wing”. Far from it.
Contrary to Martha Coakley’s response, Scott Brown has said that the localized imposition of SSM is now entrenched. So what would Coakley have Brown repudiate?
The sky has not fallen in places where the man-woman criterion of marriage has been reaffirmed. It would be crazy to ask him to repudiate that obvious fact.
And the voters of Massachusetts were denied the opportunity to vote on the marriage issue.
Is Martha Coakley now demanding that Scott Brown “repudiate” the truth that she is opposed to letting the people decide with a direct vote?
Coakley favors imposing SSM nationwide. So her candidacy has taken a stand on the national issue which happens to fall well within the scope of NOM's national mission.
She can’t seriously demand that the truth must be repudiated, right?
It is misleading for her to suggest that opinion surveys decide the matter especially when the SSM campaign in MA has insisted that majority opinion doesn’t really count anyway.
Besides, wherever the issue has been put to a vote, the opinion surveys have underestimated the share of votes that the man-woman criterion would win. In CA the surveys were wrong by about 10%, at the end of election day. That happened just about everyplace else, too.
So what is on the list of stuff that Coakley expects Brown to repudiate from the reported NOM call?
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Also See: "Brown and Coakley: Differences on Marriage Issue".
UPDATE: "NOM Is Robocalling in Massachusetts."
UPDATE: "NOM Endorses Scott Brown for US Senate."
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Return to "Race for MA Senate Seat: Conflict Over Marriage Issue."
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