Anti-Gay Marriage Zealot Bushwhacks NJ's

By Lee Russ

Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 05:49 PM

Everyone claims to want less dirt, less big money, and less exaggeration in political campaigns, but how do you accomplish that when so much of a political campaign these days consists of the efforts of third party interest groups? I don't know, and apparently neither does New Jersey.

New Jersey has adopted an experimental "clean elections" campaign law that allocates government money to candidates who meet minimum standards of small contributions from "ordinary" (i.e., not absurdly rich) people, and who agree to certain limits on both fundraising and spending. But the program isn't working too well in NJ's 14th District, where yet another anti-gay marriage zealot and his organization are pouring money into ads attacking the Democratic candidate.

As the Newark Star-Ledger tells it:

The man who has thrown a monkey wrench into a New Jersey experiment in "clean elections" is an anti-gay-marriage crusader with ties to a political commentator caught up in a scandal over the Bush administration's use of paid propagandists.

Brian Brown, who calls himself "voluntary chairman" of Common Sense America, is running a media and telephone campaign against Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex) in the 14th District, where the candidates have agreed to fundraising and spending limits in return for public financing.

Brown is also the paid executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which he runs from a Princeton office. It has as one of its goals to "stop same-sex marriage in New Jersey," according to its Web site.

That group's president, Maggie Gallagher, is one of three syndicated columnists whose work for the federal government sparked a congressional investigation in 2005. Gallagher acknowledged she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services while writing favorable articles about its efforts to promote marriage.

...

The GAO concluded an Education Department contract with columnist Armstrong Williams violated federal law, but it found the payments to Gallagher for consulting work were legal.

Gallagher, of Westchester County, N.Y., referred questions to Brown, who said Gallagher has no connection to Common Sense America. Brown and Gallagher also recently founded Marriage PAC New Jersey, which plans to raise money for electioneering to "protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

Brown would not say how much Common Sense America plans to spend on its campaign against Greenstein. Its radio ads accuse Greenstein of raising taxes. But in an interview, Brown said he is also upset because she is blocking a proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw same-sex marriage.

...

Hopes of expanding the "clean elections" program in future elections could die if Common Sense America succeeds in defeating Greenstein, said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "A successful campaign of this kind could convince people that they (the candidates) have unilaterally disarmed and they need the money to rebut these charges or to expose these people," Baker said.

I'm guessing that this is the same Brian Brown who had this to say back in March of this year:

Same-sex marriage severs the tie between marriage and parenthood. It gives the state stamp of approval on an institution that creates permanent motherlessness and fatherlessness, [and] it is an untested social experiment on our state’s children.

An "untested social experiment." That prompts two questions: (1) How exactly could it be "tested" without allowing gay marriage and/or civil unions; and (2) Why aren't any of these folks equally upset over the absolutely "untested" economic theory that globalization will be a boon to all, rather than a disaster for many?

I also can't help noticing how many "different" organizations Mr. Brown has started/runs/belongs to. And the ones listed in the article aren't all of them by any means. Brown apparently travels the country fighting what he considers the good Catholic fight, creating these organizations as he goes. Kind of like a 21st century Johnny Organizationseed.

So how do we deal with this? How do we ever clean up elections when the zealots won't stay out of them, and how do we ever get a zealot to stay out of them when the zeal derives from a feeling that the issue is one on which God Himself wants you to be zealous?

This country is in so much trouble right now.