One Minneapolis Republican embraces gay marriage, medical marijuana

Republicans wooing voters by expressing support for gay marriage? While at the top of the ticket GOP candidates have avoided social issues at all costs — gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has dodged such questions at every debate — Minnesota House candidate Brian Gruber has championed gay marriage as an issue of personal freedom. He’s among seven GOP candidates endorsed by the Minnesota chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT group that favors marriage equality.

In ads placed in the Wedge Neighborhood News, Gruber states that voting for him will “help make it happen” for same-sex marriage. For Gruber, a fiscal moderate, it’s an issue of personal responsibility. In another ad, he says the same about medical marijuana.

Gruber was the only Republican-endorsed candidate in the Twin Cities Pride Parade this summer, and he believes these issues play well in a district like 60A, which covers Minneapolis neighborhoods just south of downtown and in parts of Uptown.

“The medical marijuana ad has been the more effective of the two,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “Within a week of running the ads, about a dozen people contacted me asking how they could help.”

The marriage equality ads have been less effective because the DFL still holds a lock on the issue, Gruber says, but he feels it shouldn’t.

“People like that I support marriage equality, but aren’t quite ready to believe that the DFL is playing political games with the GLBT vote,” he said. “The GOP is so vocally against the GLBT lifestyle that all the DFL has to do is pay lip service to equality issues and they are guaranteed support.”

He provided this analogy: “If I hired someone to paint my house and four years later the guy keeps telling me he supports the right to have me house painted, but it was the same color, I’d be pretty pissed off.”

Gruber has the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans, as do six other candidates, almost all of whom reside in Minneapolis or St. Paul. One Log Cabin–endorsed candidate has a shot at making it to the Legislature: Norann Dillon in Senate District 43, which includes parts of Plymouth and Minnetonka in the western Minneapolis suburbs.

The seat is represented by DFLer Teri Bonoff, who won it in 2006 by only 4 points. In an election year where Republicans are expected to do well, Dillon may stand a chance.

Also endorsed by the Log Cabins: Patrick Elgin in Senate District 62, Rick Rice in House District 44A, Gary Mazzotta in House District 58B, Wes Whitby in House District 62A and Nathan Atkins in House District 63A.

Gruber said he enjoyed the Log Cabins’ endorsement questionnaire because it focused on a range of issues, not just LGBT issues. “Their endorsement questionnaire was easily the longest of any group I have seen during the campaign,” he said.

For Gruber, spending and responsiveness are also issues in the campaign.

“One of my priorities is lowering spending, but I’m not out to give the axe to worthwhile programs,” he said, adding that if elected he’ll hold weekly meetings in the district to get feedback from residents. “I’ll use these meetings to give people a chance to tell me what is important to them, and where they want me to focus my attention.”

As for the tea party, Gruber said he doesn’t fit the mold.

“Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin seem to be the favorites of the tea party – I don’t imagine that the people who get excited about those two would get excited about me,” he said. “I don’t consider myself a part of the tea party movement, and I doubt they would as well.”

“My impression of the tea party is that it really isn’t much different than the Republican Party or the DFL; they all seem to share the same message of ‘I’m right, you’re wrong,’” he added. “I really just don’t think people should use politics to tell adults how they should lead their lives.”

The Minnesota Log Cabin Republicans hope to send Republicans to the Capitol who will stay true to the principle of fairness for LGBT Minnesotans, and the group hopes to build a more inclusive GOP.

And above all things, they are Republicans.

“We endorse Republican candidates,” Log Cabins president Mark Knieff recently told MinnPost. “Obama has not been a friend. And a fierce advocate, he’s been anything but. People need to wake up to the fact that just because there’s a ‘D’ after someone’s name [it doesn't mean] they’re supportive of our issues.”