Democratic Primary Was Big Win for Traditional Marriage
By Jim Lafferty
     The Democrat primary last week was the first opportunity --- since the petition drive for the Protection of Marriage Amendment in 2002 --- for the voices of Massachusetts to be heard on marriage outside of the smoke-filled rooms and deal-making on Beacon Hill.
     For months, gay lobbyists had been throwing their weight around, bragging about how much they were going to spend and how many people from New York and Washington they would bring here to “trounce” pro-marriage candidates.
     It was a real test for the pro-marriage movement in Massachusetts.
     The national television cameras have gone away and none of the big names like James Dobson, Gary Bauer and others, who used this Commonwealth as a backdrop for their organizations’ fundraising efforts and direct-mail, are here any longer.
     It was the pro-marriage people of Massachusetts, all alone, versus everything the international homosexual movement could throw at them. And the people of Massachusetts won!!!
     Starting back in May, the homosexuals launched elaborate phone-banking in downtown Boston, telephoning voters to identify every pro-homosexual voter in the districts where legislators favored traditional marriage. Extensive polling was conducted to craft a message which would win for the homosexual lobby.
     The homosexuals were keeping one of their promises --- they were pouring thousands of dollars into these races.
     The results of their phone-banking dictated two guiding principles to them for the slate of homosexual and pro-homosexual candidates which had been hand-picked to challenge the pro-marriage lawmakers: (1) don’t let anyone know that the homosexual lobby is your chief benefactor and financier and (2) don’t talk about marriage.
     Brochures and flyers produced by the homosexual lobby for their candidates did not mention any of the issues on the homosexual agenda. They looked like Chamber of Commerce promotions.
Reps Goguen and Spiliotis Drew Lots of Heat
     Pro-marriage candidates like Rep. Emile Goguen (D-Fitchburg), the sponsor of the Article 8 Removal of judges, and Rep. Joyce Spiliotis (D-Peabody) saw that they were prime targets of this stealth homosexual campaign.
     Rep. Spiliotis took it public at a candidates’ forum. Thereafter, a liberal chorus accused her of “hate speech” just for asking her opponent, Anne Manning, why she had received the endorsement of so many gay/lesbian groups.
     Two days later, Article 8’s Brian Camenker and I held a press conference in front of the Peabody City Hall and laid-out the details of the “Secret Campaign” for a reporter from the Salem Evening News. A Blue Cross/Blue Shield funded group called “No Place for Hate” held signs and feigned shock and concern that someone would dare to question the homosexual lobby in their community. A woman who was a holocaust survivor was on-hand and was introduced to the reporter. The “conservatives are really Nazis” slur was delivered in a not-so-subtle way.
     The cover had been blown off the secret homosexual campaign and they and their allies didn’t like it one bit. The Salem Evening News editorialized and quoted the spokesperson for the “No Place for Hate” bunch and even the Mayor of Peabody, Michael Bonfanti, was part of the “No Place for Hate” group protesting the press conference. He went on about “hate speech” to their delight.
Big Turning Point
     This was the turning point in the Spiliotis race and it was duplicated in the other races across the state --- once the voters became aware of the heavy-handed behind-the scenes campaign of the homosexual lobby, it was all over for Anne Manning, Joseph Silva, Susan Koeck, Stephen Stat Smith, Melissa Murgo, Paul Meoni, Kenneth Sheehan and the other homosexual or pro-homosexual candidates.
     The Article 8 office was swamped with people volunteering to make phone calls, go door-to-door with literature, etc. At one point, the number of volunteers was greater than the needs of the campaigns and the eager workers had to wait for opportunities to help.
     All of this produced a groundswell of support for Representatives Goguen, Spiliotis, Ed Connolly, Bruce Ayers, John Fresolo and Dave Nangle. Goguen won by a 3 to 1 margin and Spiliotis trounced her two pro-homosexual opponents. Connolly won by 67 votes but Ayers, Fresolo and Nangle all scored big against their challengers.
     The one low light of the night was the defeat of pro-marriage Representative Vincent Ciampa by a radical homosexual and anti-Catholic extremist Carl Sciortino, who had held a kiss-in with his “partner” during a Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. He was active in the Transgender group while a student at Tufts.
     Rep. Ciampa sought a campaign which focused on a wide range of issues in his Medford/ Somerville district. However, few people ever understood what a radical Sciortino is. With the low voter turnout, Ciampa lost by a mere 117 votes.
     Of course, the biggest losers in the Democrat primary were Arline Isaacson and the radical homosexual lobby which had been huffing and puffing about how many pro-marriage scalps they were going to take in the election. Rep. Spiliotis estimates they spent $200,000 in their desperate effort to defeat her.
     The big winner is every future generation of the people of Massachusetts. Pro-marriage people – Catholics, Evangelicals, union members – all came together to turn back the well-financed secret homosexual campaign. And with no help from any of the “stars” of the pro-marriage movement, they did it on their own.
     This effort is a demonstration of what it takes to win on the marriage issue --- not star-studded rallies with a long roster of Washington windbags but an aroused citizenry of parents and grandparents who understand what is at stake and are ready to act to stop the assault on marriage. This should serve as a model for other states trying to repel the homosexual lobby with its deep pockets and inflated reputation of political power.
On to November!

    Jim Lafferty is the political consultant who stuck his fist in the face of Senate President Birmingham in 2002, while assisting Massachusetts Citizens for Marriage with its successful petition drive that year, and advised him that he was not going to be elected Governor of this state.
     Lafferty is back this year, assisting Mass. Citizens for Marriage and Traditional Values Coalition to ensure victories by traditional candidates again in this November’s elections.

More from Jim Lafferty
This is how Jim Lafferty explained the election to a friend.
     The homosexuals targeted eight pro-marriage lawmakers.  They listed them on their websites, their chief lobbyist, Arlene Isaacson, personally told three of them that they were going to be defeated "because we have the money andthe people to do it." 
     The gay voter id phoning started in May from a center in
Boston with over 100 phone lines.  Glossy mailings sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign Fund and MassEquality were dropped six times in the last two weeks of the race.   None of these mailings mentioned any gay issues and only made a veiled reference to "all families".  A surrogate group called "No Place for Hate" attacked one of the candidates for asking about her opponent’s relationship with the gay/lesbian lobby.  Such questions are now "hate speech" in Massachusetts. 
     I helped organize one candidate’s voter-identification phone bank. It warmed my heart to see Catholics and Evangelicals phoning side-by-side with union members in one of their union halls.
      Emile Goguen, the sponsor of the Removal of judges, won 3 to 1 over
his gay-endorsed opponent.  Joyce Spiliotis, a co-sponsor of Goguen's
legislation and a strong pro-marriage voice, won by what her local daily (a lib paper which endorsed her opponent) called a "landslide."  She estimates her opponents spent over $200,000 against her.
      There was no comparable effort by the national pro-family groups to go after the anti-marriage lawmakers.  And few of the MA pro-family groups paid any attention to the primary with the exception of the Parents Rights Coalition, Mass Citizens for Marriage and the Traditional Values Coalition.  Mass Family Institute and Mass Citizens for Life did voter guides which were available (but not widely distributed) on the last weekend before the election.
      In short, the homosexuals spent a lot of money and effort and got one seat. Carl Sciortino beat Vinny Ciampa who tried to finesse the marriage issue and lost.
      The flip side was that all the televangelists who used Boston as a backdrop for their broadcasts and their direct mail were among the missing. 
      The people of Massachusetts won this one by basic grassroots grunt work, a phenomenon no longer seen or understood in the national pro-family movement.