IL GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Steve Sauerberg stunned social conservatives last week when he announced the addition of a homosexual rights activist as his campaign's new press secretary. Christopher Barron, 36, was point man for the Log Cabin Republicans in their 2004 campaign against President George W. Bush's effort to add a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
After discussion about the revelation broke out last week on Illinois Review (see "Sauerberg: Personnel is Policy"), state pro-family leaders -- including talk show host Sandy Rios and national activist Peter LaBarbera -- voiced outrage Monday on the air over Sauerberg's apparent political snub.
"It is inconceivable that Steve Sauerberg would so needlessly alienate the pro-family conservative base in Illinois by hiring a veteran homosexual activist for his campaign," said Peter LaBarbera, founder of Republicans For Family Values (www.rffv.org).
Within weeks of President Bush's amendment announcement in 2004, Barron and the Log Cabin Republicans launched its first ever $1 million ad campaign criticizing the president's effort and ultimately withheld endorsing Bush in his 2004 presidential re-election bid.
The LCR ad was designed to embarrass Bush by purposely pitting the President's position in support of the marriage amendment directly against his VP Dick Cheney's 2000 debate comments . . .
More below the fold . . .
LCR protest ads ran in home states of Republicans who sponsored the effort in Congress. As the group's political director, Barron was quoted widely in the national media during the heat of the federal marriage debate.
In a May 11, 2004 Rocky Mountain News story, Sauerberg's now-press secretary Barron told reporter Peggy Lowe about the LCRs' determination to make two Colorado lawmakers regret their federal efforts to protect traditional marriage:
"The fact that ten Republicans joined to defeat that clearly was a stinging rebuke for the forces of division, which are led by Congresswoman Musgrave and Sen. Allard," said Christopher Barron, Log Cabin's political director. "This was her home state and we thought it was a clear call about where the people of Colorado stood on this."
Barron went on . . .
"The decision to run this ad campaign and to fight this amendment was a difficult one in that it required us to do a serious gut check," Barron said. "We decided that loyalty to one party doesn't mean checking our values at the door. We believe we're actually saving the party from the radical right and people like Congresswoman Musgrave."
Barron's addition to the Sauerberg campaign is steaming Illinois conservative leaders.
"Log Cabin activists are working hand-in-hand with the rest of the homosexual lobby to radically redefine the institution of marriage and demonize tradition-minded voters who adhere to Judeo-Christian teachings that homosexuality is wrong," LaBarbera said.
And then on Monday, despite the ongoing controversy, Sauerberg announced he would loan his campaign $1 million in personal funds. The campaign press release lists as its press contact person the controversial Barron, implying no campaign feathers had been ruffled despite the uproar.
Both Rios and LaBarbera expressed their disappointment with the Sauerberg campaign's apparent lack of concern over the flap on Rios' Chicago drive home show Monday afternoon.
"Between this and his equivocating on whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned, Sauerberg has made his already long odds of defeating Dick Durbin much longer," LaBarbera said.
"Instead of energizing the conservative voters he needs to beat Durbin in November, he's punched them in the gut. And the IL-GOP wonders why it continues to lose elections."
