Candidate for governor of Texas is against gay marriage because he's had a wife for 33 years

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, running for governor of the Lone Star state, said during a debate Tuesday (30 September) that he is against same-sex marriage because he's been married to a woman for 33 years.

According to LoneStarQ.com, the gay marriage question was posed to Abbott via Twitter from a man named John from Fort Worth: 'If a 10-year-old girl asked you whether her two dads should be allowed to get married, what would you tell her?'

Replied Abbott: 'John, I want you to know there are good and decent people on both sides oft his issue. I believe in traditional marriage. That’s what 75 percent of Texans agreed with less than a decade ago when they passed a constitutional amendment in the state of Texas saying that marriage in Texas is a union between one man and one woman.

'Now, for me personally, this is more than a constitutional amendment. I’ve been married to my wife Cecilla for more than 33 years now.'

Moderator Norma Garcia then asked: 'Is that what you would tell the 10-year-old?'

Replied Abbott: 'That’s what I just told John.'

Democrat Wendy Davis took the opportunity to reiterate her support of same-sex marriage.

Abbott and Davis are running to succeed Rick Perry who has been an outspoken opponent of gay marriage.

The state's ban on gay marriage has been overturned by a federal judge and that ruling is being appealed to the US Supreme Court.

Charlie Crist says Fla. Gov. Rick Scott has no integrity

Republican-turned-Democrat former Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that current Republican Gov. Rick Scott "has no integrity" and his policies are driven by "the almighty dollar."

Crist made the remarks while discussing his campaign to seek his old job with his new party during an hour-long interview with Associated Press reporters that covered education, the environment and claims by Scott.

The gubernatorial campaign has been one of the most negative in Florida history. Crist accused Scott of running a dishonest ad in which a man says he was swindled by Crist and Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein. Crist said Rothstein was a political donor who also gave money to the Republican Party of Florida and President George W. Bush, among others.

"Once we knew what he had done, we returned it all and my opponent in this race knows that. My opponent has not returned anything he took from you and they should," Crist said.

Scott was CEO of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain during a federal investigation into Medicaid fraud. After Scott stepped down, the company agreed to pay $1.7 billion in fines to settle the case. Scott spent millions of his own money to win office four years ago when he received less than half the votes cast.

"He won by like 1 percent after spending $75 million his company stole from all of us," Crist said.

"I have integrity, he does not," Crist said. "Let's talk about education, let's talk about the environment, let's talk about the Everglades, let's talk about the middle class that suffers."

The Associated Press also invited Scott for an interview, but he declined.

When told of Crist's remarks, Scott campaign spokesman Greg Blair said, "As Charlie realizes that no one is buying what he is selling, he is becoming increasingly angry and nasty in his personal attacks on the governor. From comparing Rick Scott to Al Capone, to calling him evil, to accusing the governor of killing Floridians, these are desperate statements from a desperate man."

On education, Crist said he wants to reduce the number of standardized tests in public schools and that he supports a merit pay system for teachers that involves principals and parents and not just test scores.

And while he previously supported the idea of charter schools, he said they now concern him.

"They have essentially become profit centers rather than learning centers. They're helping my opponent raise a lot of money and I think I've figured out why. They like making the money that they're making," Crist said. "A lot of what I see out of this administration is driven by the almighty dollar and it concerns me and it bothers me and we need to have schools become learning centers again."

Crist accused Scott of also doing nothing to help stop rising utility rates. Crist called for a greater emphasis on alternative energy sources.

"We ought to have more solar energy development in Florida and wind and they're standing in the face of it. They're trying to hold back the future. We're the Sunshine State. It makes no sense until you look at the fact that (power companies) have given him millions of dollars," Crist said.

Crist chose to run for Senate in 2010 instead of seeking a second term as governor. He entered the race as a Republican, but ended up running as an independent after falling behind in the GOP primary. He registered as a Democrat in 2012 and entered the governor's race nearly a year later.

Scott and Republicans have used the party switch against him, saying he is a political opportunist who can't be trusted.

"I haven't changed that much at all. What has changed politically over the last four or five years is my former party and it's been a titanic shift," Crist said. "Jeb Bush has said it better than I can ever say it, that today's Republican Party appears to be, if not actually is, anti-women, anti-minority, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-education, anti-environment."

Mike Michaud Could Become Nation's Only Out Gay Governor Despite Lack of Support From Top LGBT Donors

According to recent polling, openly gay Democratic congressman Michael Michaud leads the pack in the race for the governor's mansion in Maine. Michaud came out last November. At the time, Michaud commented that he wanted to avoid a "whisper campaign" that he claimed was being waged against him. With Michaud now so close to victory, perhaps the most surprising fact of Michaud's campaign has been, as Politico reports, that his success has come without the help of the nation's most prominent, powerful and moneyed LGBT donors:

For all the formal endorsements he has collected in his quest for the governorship, Michaud has been conspicuously shortchanged by many of the wealthiest and most influential gay donors in Democratic politics. Far from becoming a pathbreaking cause célèbre, he has plainly not enjoyed the overpowering financial support of the community that helped fuel President Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012 and made Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin the first openly gay senator in history. 

Dozens of prominent gay bundlers for Obama’s campaign, including Evercore Partners’ Charles Myers and Newsweb’s Fred Eychaner, have given nothing to the Maine lawmaker, according to the most recent state finance records. Gay and straight Hollywood kingpins who have bankrolled marriage equality lawsuits, including producers Bruce Cohen and Rob Reiner, have kept their checkbooks closed. 

Of the 32 activists and donors who sit on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, only one has donated to the man currently positioned to become America’s only gay governor. Wealthy Colorado gay rights activist Tim Gill has maxed out to Michaud, but he is an exception that helps prove the rule.

Pro-Marriage Equality Kentucky AG Jack Conway Announces Bid for Governor

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, who made headlines in March when he tearfully announced he wouldn’t defend his state’s gay marriage ban in an appeal of a federal court’s ruling, has thrown his hat into the 2015 governor’s race.

In an interview with the AP, Conway said he isn't concerned that his pro-equality stance may hurt his chances in the conservative state. As public opinion continues to shift in favor of gay marriage, Conway said Kentucky voters will tire of rehashing the debate come November 2015.

"I think in the fall of 2015 that will not be the big issue," he said. "I think the voters will be more interested in building Kentucky's future than in reliving all of that."

Conway’s refusal to defend the ban led to Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear hiring private attorneys to appeal the gay marriage ruling. Yesterday, those attorneys filed an 'offensive' brief arguing that the state’s ban should be maintained because gay marriage threatens birth rates, and thus economic competitiveness, in Kentucky.

In her own words. Mother Jones releases audio of Susana’s graphic attacks on women, Hispanic business and teachers

The true Susana Martinez, in her own words. That’s the first big takeaway from today’s Mother Jones article, “Is New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez the Next Sarah Palin?”

One Republican state legislator described her tactics thusly: “Nastiness, misinformation, innuendo, and flat-out lies have created a toxic political environment.”

Just a week after Martinez released her first highly-polished campaign ad denouncing her national ambitions and promoting her warm and fuzzy side, new audio recordings from inside her 2010 campaign show the sexist, belittling and vindictive nature of the true Susana Martinez behind closed doors.

On Teachers & Hiding Her True Positions During the Campaign

Martinez told campaign staffers she would hide her opinions on teachers during the campaign, but she didn’t like teachers who “already don’t work,” referring to summer school breaks.

She then laughs with her chief campaign strategist, Jay McCleskey, about ways to avoid accusations that she hid her true anti-teacher feelings during the campaign

Oklahoma GOP Governor BANS Paid Sick Leave, Minimum Wage Increases

It’s a bad day to be a working American in Oklahoma–and the first of many to come. On Monday, in response to the cry all across the country–and the response in some cities like Sea-Tac, a suburb of Seattle, Washington–for higher wages Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has signed a bill prohibiting cities in the state from establishing mandatory minimum wages or vacation and sick day requirements.

Proponents of the bill echo the tired line that a higher minimum wage will hurt business owners’ profits or, as Fallin put it, “Mandating minimum wage increases at the local level would drive business to other communities and states, and would raise prices for consumers.

Cuccinelli: My ‘Beliefs About The Personal Challenge Of Homosexuality Haven’t Changed’

Usually when you think of religious anti-gay bigots, the image of an older person, say someone in their 60′s, 70′s or 80′s, comes to mind. Think, the late Jerry Falwell or octogenarian Pat Robertson, or even Maggie Gallagher, who’s 52. And given that America’s Catholics today support same-sex marriage at a higher rate than the rest of America — the majority of America, about 55 percent, already support marriage equality — you wouldn’t necessarily expect a 44-year old east coast Catholic to be as a big an anti-gay bigot as Ken Cuccinelli is. And you’d be wrong.

Ken Cuccinelli, who is running for governor of Virginia against Democrat Terry McAuliffe, on Saturday morning told voters that he is standing his ground when it comes to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. And that ground in the recent past has included comments that gay people have no souls, are self-destructive, and that “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically wrong.”

 

The radical right-wing Republican attorney general of Virginia was asked Saturday morning by PBS’ Judy Woodruff at the Virginia Bar Association gubernatorial debate if he still believes “same-sex acts are against nature and are harmful to society,” as he said a few years ago.

Cuccinelli’s response was straightforward:

“My personal beliefs about the personal challenge of homosexuality haven’t changed.”

But the married 44-year old Roman Catholic and father of seven didn’t expand on what “the personal challenge of homosexuality” actually is, leaving many, at least on Twitter, to wonder — and leaving Cuccinelli the laughing stock of the week.

Cuccinelli is so anti-gay that among his first acts upon taking office in 2010 was — literally unprovoked and out of nowhere — writing the University of Virginia Board of Governors to tell them that they did not have the constitutional authority to protect LGBT people from discrimination.

In the past, as a state senator running for AG in 2009, Cuccinelli said:

“My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. … They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

And in 2008 Cuccinelli, told the Virginia Family Foundation that when “you look at the homosexual agenda, I cannot support something that I believe brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul.”

Watch (apologies — audio very low):