In Houston, Tex., city controller Annise Parker, who is a lesbian, is running for mayor, but a lit piece sent out to voters last month says that a homosexual should not lead the city.

“Annise Parkers lifestyle that of being a HOMOSEXUAL is not the proper role model to lead the fourth largest city in the United States,” it read. “The Bible speaks clearly against the lifestyle she represents, James 1:8 says, ‘A double minded man is confused in all his ways’. She does not believe in what the scripture says about her lifestyle which in return means she doesn’t believe in God.”

The flier was signed by Christians for Better Government, but the group said it didn’t create the piece and claimed that someone else is using their name.

In Akron, Ohio, Sandra Kurt is running for city council. Last week, a flier signed, “A concerned neighbor,” slammed Kurt for being a lesbian.

The flier says she has “no education or experience in government other than political activism for special rights for homosexuals.” The flier also accuses “homosexuals” of working to “sensor [sic] speech against homosexuality (e.g.. criminalize reading bible passages in church that condemn homosexual behavior), prohibit insurance coverage for therapy to repair their deviant lifestyles, require schools to teach children that homosexual behavior is natural and acceptable.”

In 2008, Ken Herndon, an openly gay candidate for the Louisville, Ky., Metro Council, lost his primary challenge by 112 votes after an anonymous flier “featured a photo of Herndon’s face planted atop the body of a man embracing two other men kissing at a gay-pride parade.” The flier read, “[Herndon] wants us to elect him because he designed new garbage cans?! I guess when you live a life of trash you become pretty familiar with garbage cans.”

Such unsigned fliers attacking LGBT candidates are a common tactic and often are effective at playing to people’s prejudices. Earlier this year, openly gay candidate Derrick Hankerson lost his bid for Dania Beach City Commission in Florida by a scant 98 votes after an anonymous flier portrayed him as “a radical gay drug-dealing felon” was distributed. He plans to sue for libel.

Yet, despite the prevalence of the practice, more and more LGBT people are getting elected into office. According to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the are 450 openly LGBT elected officials in the United States. And during the 2009 off-season elections, the group is tracking 76 LGBT candidates.

Maplewood council contenders Dave Hafner and Jim Llanas

With just under a week until the Maplewood city elections, the quirky politics of the suburb just north of St. Paul have taken some interesting turns. Dueling fliers that some residents describe as “racist and homophobic” and a recording of a 911 call of candidate allegedly threatening a neighbor are among the more noteworthy occurrences.

A flier distributed to some Maplewood residents last week highlighted candidate Jim Llanas’ sexual orientation and ethnic heritage while also targeting Llanas’ support for a human rights commission. In some cases, the flier was attached to campaign literature for mayoral candidate Ken Smart and council candidates Dave Hafner and DelRay Rokke, sparking at least one council member, John Nephew, to connect the flier to their campaigns.

The three candidates deny any involvement, and Rokke has told supporters not to distribute unauthorized fliers on his behalf.

In a message to supporters on his campaign blog, Smart said he didn’t know about the fliers. “I have not seen any hate piece attacking candidate Llanas so I cannot say whether it is a hate piece or if I condone it. I strongly endorse everyone’s First Amendment right to free speech. If it has untruths in it, then I do not condone it.”

Rokke told the Minnesota Independent he hadn’t heard of the fliers; when provided with one, he weighed in. “It is possible that others who support us could have been involved, but there are so many games played in Maplewood politics that most people do not even pay attention to stuff like this,” he said. “I think it is quite a stretch to say that it is racist and homophobic.”

Rokke speculated that Llanas would use the uproar to get more votes. “I guess [Llanas] figures if he can get the vast majority of members of those groups [gays and Hispanics] in a municipal election which will have only about 30 percent of the voters turn-out, he has a good chance to win,” he said. “Now with the allegations of this flier being something making him into a victim, too, he is probably going to get a few more votes.”

Rokke asked his supporters not to participate in any unauthorized fliering. On his campaign blog, he wrote, “If this was done by supporters, [I] would prefer that this not be distributed with, or added to, our brochures as they just create fodder for those who would use it as a reason to hurt the … team.”

Candidate Dave Hafner took a more active approach to denying the fliers this week. His supporters are distributing a new campaign flier (pdf) written by Hafner, which reads, in part:

Neither Dave Hafner (nor Ken Smart or DelRay Rocky) are racist, sexist, or homophobic. I personally don’t care if James Llanis is gay or where he grew up. I lived in Portland, Oregon for two years. I was born and raised in the Twin cities. And I played baseball in Florida long enough. These are three of the top four hotbeds for the gay lifestyle in the United States. I know many gay people and some of them are my friends…

I don’t care if people are white, black, brown, yellow, red, or polka dot green. If there were people that were polka dot green you can bet some of them would be my friends. I don’t know anyone that is actually white, black, red or yellow. I do know many that are “brown” and some that I guess you could call some shade of “yellow.” I also consider some of them to be my friends…

The Hispanic community impresses me as being a group of dedicated, hardworking, and respectful people. And they are predominantly Christian and I like that too.

Hafner told the Minnesota Independent that he had nothing to do with the anti-Llanas flier. “This campaign material was not distributed by my campaign committee. Heck, we don’t even have a campaign committee,” he said by email. “After watching the way I am getting crucified (for doing nothing more than running for the Maplewood city council) I wouldn’t identify myself either if I didn’t have to.”

Llanas told the Minnesota Independent he wants to keep the campaign positive, adding that he believes whoever distributed the fliers doesn’t represent the views of the majority of Maplewood voters.

“These slimy tactics make incorrect assumptions about Maplewood residents,” Llanas wrote on his campaign website. “They assume Maplewood residents are uninformed, comfortable with people who divide our community and tolerant of bigots. The fact is residents are deeply engaged with the affairs of our city and are fed up with this type of political nonsense!”

Hafner’s altercation with a resident

Hafner’s campaign made news locally when a neighbor called 911 during an argument.

Pat Downs, a neighbor of Hafner, used the open comment period at a city council meeting in September to express his concerns about Hafner. “When I told him I objected to him putting signage in my yard earlier, without permission, he demanded his signs back, and called me a thief. My reply was he obviously knew he had put the signage there, and it was mine now. At that point, he went crazy; yelling, screaming and swearing,” said Downs. “He called me a liar and a thief – calling me out of the car to fight, that I was a chicken not to get out. He chased me down the street, swinging his fist and finger at us, and at this point I stopped and I called 911.”

The incident has become a point of contention in Maplewood politics and Hafner went before the council on Oct. 12 to defend himself.

“There’s no proof, no evidence, no qualified witnesses, no police action, nothing. The guy just came down here for four minutes and four seconds and leveled a series of unfounded allegations against me,” Hafner told the council.

“I never got into an argument with Patrick J. Downs. Never. He went out of his way to say I accosted him. The guy also made a false 911 call to the police.”

Downs spoke immediately following Hafner refuting the claims that the altercation never happened. “If people have doubts about what happened, I have the 911 tape and I will put it online.”

In the 911 audio file (mp3) he posted, listeners can hear a voice in the background, identified by Downs as Hafner, shouting that he’s a “liar,” a “thief” and a “son of a bitch.” The shouting was so loud that the 911 operator said, “I cannot hear what you are saying.”

Both acknowledge that they had had previous arguments, and Hafner has called authorities in the past to complain about Downs.

The election for Maplewood will occur on Nov. 3 when voters will vote for mayor and two city council members. Incumbent Kathleen Juenemann won the primary and will be on the ballot as well Llanas, Hafner and Rebecca Cave.

Incumbent Mayor Diana Longrie will face off against council member Will Rossbach in the race for mayor.

When Maplewood city council candidate Jim Llanas told the Minnesota Independent this summer, “Brace yourself. It’s just going to get ugly,” he wasn’t far off the mark. An anonymous flier being distributed about Llanas, who would be both the first openly gay and the first Hispanic city council member in the city’s history, is being described as racist and homophobic by a progressive group and a city council member.

“Llanas, a non-native of Maplewood, apparently spends much of his time in Minneapolis supporting gay politicians,” the flier reads. “How does this qualify him to run for Maplewood city council?”

It then says that Llanas has gone by several names, including his middle name “Moreno,” and that he has been involved in the LGBT community.

The fliers have been distributed in Maplewood neighborhoods, and in numerous instances they’ve been taped on doors along with an attached campaign brochure — in many cases affixed with the same blue tape — promoting conservative council candidate Dave Hafner and write-in candidates DelRay Rokke (council) and Ken Smart (mayor).

Current city council member John Nephew first spotted the fliers and posted them on his blog. “For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think those three were born in Maplewood either, but you know that’s not really what the flyer is getting at with the term ‘non-native.’”

There’s no proof that any of those candidates were responsible for the flier, and Llanas points to comments on a blog where Smart said he doesn’t have any knowledge of the flier.

The flier also attacks Llanas’ work in human rights. “Llanas wants to establish a Human Rights commission on the city council. The question is which humans? When was the last time a human rights commission did anything for you???”

Llanas condemned the flier on his campaign website:

Using a strategy right from the Karl Rove playbook, supporters of my opponents are using fear and hate to get votes. They blanket neighborhoods in the dark of night, afraid to show their faces. These slimey tactics make incorrect assumptions about Maplewood residents. They assume Maplewood residents are uninformed, comfortable with people who divide our community and tolerant of bigots. The fact is residents are deeply engaged with the affairs of our city and are fed up with this type of political nonsense!

Progressive Majority, a “political action committee committed to progressive candidates and issues,” also condemned the fliers and rushed to support Llanas in an email on Wednesday.

Jim has been called “a non-native of Maplewood” and been attacked for “supporting gay politicians.” The residents of Maplewood are facing a new low in the politics of bigotry and hatred …

The attacks, meant only to stoke racism and homophobia among voters, remind us of the Jim Crow days in the American South. While we are confident that the residents of Maplewood will reject the politics of bigotry, we also know that Jim needs help to get his message out.

Click here for a PDF version of the flier.

Bringing the suit were Minnesota Majority employees Jeffrey Davis and Daniel McGrath; Republican legislators Tom Emmer, Mark Buesgens and Matt Dean; chairman of the Minnesota Republican Liberty Caucus David FitzSimmons; self-described “Republican activist and campaign worker for about 25 years” Jean Sanford and Carver County Republican activist Cindy Pugh.

The Supreme Court said that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.

“Here you have a major U.S. Senate race being decided by just a few hundred votes, and along comes our case citing the fact that the secretary of state has been unable to account for tens of thousands of voters in the 2008 election,” Minnesota Majority president Jeffrey Davis said in a press release. “You can see why the court might not want to touch this case with a 10-foot pole.”

But the court said the plaintiffs “neither describe nor identify any wrongful acts, omissions or errors of respondents concerning a specific election as required” by Minnesota statute. It added that they requested “no relief specific” to the 2008 election, noting that even if they had tied it to the election, the window for contesting the election has passed.

Ritchie praised the decision. “On behalf of all dedicated election officials who help administer the best election system in the country, I thank the Minnesota Supreme Court for its careful and judicious review of this lawsuit and its decision to dismiss it,” he said in a statement this on Thursday. “We agree with the court’s findings that Minnesota Majority neither described nor identified any wrongful acts, omissions or errors, and we concur with the court’s decision to reject the lawsuit.”

(Minnesota Historical Society)

When legislators want to make major changes to law, sometimes they put the law to the voters to decide. This year, legislators want to know where the voters stand on issues like guns, health care and labor unions. There’s even a bill to ask the voters whether the Minnesota Constitution should be amended to change the way the state amends it.

None of these bills has advanced in the Legislature, but if they did, it could mean a crowded ballot in November 2010.

Republicans, and a few DFLers, want to amend the Minnesota Constitution (HF 415, SF 582) with language from the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment would read, “The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms for the defense and security of the person, family, or home or for lawful hunting, recreation, or marksmanship training is fundamental and shall not be abridged.”

Four DFLers have joined a slate of Republicans pushing for the amendment: Reps. Larry Howes, R-Walker; Al Doty, DFL-Royalton; Steve Smith, R-Mound; Mark Murdock, R-Ottertail; John Persell, DFL-Bemidji; Steve Drazkowski, R-Wabasha; Ron Shimanski, R-Silver Lake; Tom Emmer, R-Delano; Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead; Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont; David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake; and Dave Olin, DFL-Thief River Falls; and Sens. Bill G. Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria and Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington.

Another bill has been proposed that would make it harder to amend the state Constitution by requiring a three-fifths majority of the Senate and House in order to put an amendment to the people. The bill (SF 233) is offered by Republican Sens. Chris Gerlach of Apple Valley and Julianne Ortman of Chanhassen, and DFLers Tom Bakk of Cook, John Marty of Roseville and Ann Rest of New Hope.

Sens. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, Amy T. Koch, R-Buffalo, and Rep. Ron Shimanski, R-Silver Lake, want to impose term limits on senators and representatives. If the bill (HF 770, SF 78) passed, the language on the ballot would read, “A person may not be elected more than three times to the office of senator or five times to the office of representative. A person may not be elected more than twice to the office of governor nor more than twice to the office of lieutenant governor. A person may not be elected more than twice to the office of secretary of state, attorney general, or state auditor.”

DFL legislators want the lieutenant governor gone. Reps. Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis and Mindy Greiling of Roseville join Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope in offering a bill to ask the voters (HF 296, SF 98) to abolish the office.

Republicans have offered a constitutional amendment to “establish a right to work.” In actuality, the bill (SF 439, HF 169) would prohibit an employer from requiring membership in a union as a condition of employment. The bill would ask voters, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to prohibit any person, as a condition of employment, from being required to become a member of a labor union or pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any kind to a labor union or to any charity or other third party in lieu of such payments?” It is sponsored by Reps. Tom Emmer of Delano, Mark Buesgens of Jordan, Tom Hackbarth of Cedar, Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove, and Keith Downey of Edina, and Sens. David Hann of Eden Prairie, Chris Gerlach of Apple Valley, Bill G. Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria, and Amy Koch of Buffalo will

No more pluralities. DFL legislators want elected officials to get 50 percent plus one of the vote in order to serve in office. If the bill (HF 440) passes, the voters will be asked, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require that an executive officer, judge, or legislator must be elected by a majority of the votes cast at the general election for the office sought?”

Legislators sponsoring the bill are: Kent Eken of Twin Valley, Mindy Greiling of Roseville, Bill Hilty of Finlayson, Tony Sertich of Chisolm, Sheldon Johnson of St. Paul, Will Morgan of Burnsville, Brita Sailer of Park Rapids, Lyle Koenen of Clara City, Bernard Lieder of Crookston, Loren Solberg of Grand Rapids and Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis.

Republican House members are looking to have their Senate counterparts elected in staggered terms, with half up for reelection every two years instead of the full Senate elected every four years. The bill (HF 408) reads, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require that, as nearly as possible, one-half of the members of the Senate stand for election at each biennial election of legislators, commencing in 2012?”

The Republicans on the bill include: Reps. Laura Brod of New Prague, Bob Dettmer of Forest Lake, Paul Kohls of Victoria, Steve Smith of Mound, Tom Hackbarth of Cedar, Doug Magnus of Slayton; Randy Demmer of Hayfield, Dean Urdahl of Grove City, Tara Mack of Apple Valley, Matt Dean of Dellwood, Kurt Zellers of Maple Grove, Morrie Lanning of Moorhead, Michael Beard of Shakopee, Tim Kelly of Red Wing, and Ron Shimanski of Silver Lake.

A “freedom of choice in health care” amendment has been submitted by Republicans. The bill (HF 171, SF 325) is a clear response to increasing support for the Minnesota Health Plan Act, which would eliminate private health insurance while ensuring doctor and clinic choice.

“Because all people should have the right to make decisions about their health care, no law shall be passed that restricts a person’s freedom of choice of private health care systems or private health plans of any type,” the measure reads in part.

The bill is sponsored by Reps. Tom Emmer of Delan and Mark Buesgens of Jordan, and Sens. Amy Koch of Buffalo, David Hann of Eden Prairie, Chris Gerlach of Apple Valley, Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria and Ray Vandeveer of Forest Lake.

Sarah Palin on the stump with John McCain, with Kenyan minister John Muthee and as speaker at the Master's Commission graduation ceremony. Photos: WDCpix.com, YouTube, Wasilla Assembly of God Church

The religious right had a bad day on Tuesday. The election of Barack Obama and Democratic gains in the U.S. Senate and House put support for religious right policies further out of reach, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Some say Republican John McCain coddled Obama on the issues, and others point to President Bush’s noncommittal attitude for issues the religious right cares about the most: gay marriage and abortion. The one bit of post-election hope seems to be the ascension of Sarah Palin as a religious right figurehead.

Here’s which way the fingers are pointing:

It was McCain’s fault.

“McCain gave Obama the free pass of the century by NOT talking about the Illinois Senator’s radical anti-DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) plan, his campaign promise to open up the military to homosexuality, and Obama’s pro-abortion extremism,” said Peter Labarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. “Most Americans have no idea how extreme Obama is on abortion and homosexuality, due to Obama’s clever obfuscations and McCain’s refusal to educate Americans on the Democratic candidate’s social record.”

LaBarbera offers this solution: “The GOP must return to its pro-family roots if it wants to start winning again.”

It was Bush’s fault.
“The conservative movement knows how to rise from the ashes, and we need to pick up the pieces of the movement, which was so badly dismantled and put in disarray by the George W. Bush administration. But we can do it. And we’ve got to get started immediately,” said Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum. “The disarray of the conservative movement is the fault of George W. Bush and his advisor Karl Rove. I guess it turned out that he was not a conservative after all. He was a big government, big spending, globalist, ‘New World Order’-type of Republican.”

Schlafly offers this solution: “Sarah Palin is certainly a rising star – she was a breath of fresh air, and a lot of excitement to the conservative movement. I think she is a genuine conservative.”

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land agrees that Palin could take the mantle as the face of the religious right. “I think there are several contestants for it,” Land told One News Now, a Christian news outlet affiliated with the American Family Association. “Sarah Palin is certainly going to be a prominent one. Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell — who just won re-election [in Kentucky] — [and] Bobby Jindal from Louisiana.”

Land echoed LaBarbera’s call to make the GOP more socially conservative. “I think that we need to stay consistent with our message of family values and the sanctity of human life — and we need to find attractive and articulate candidates who will go out and make those cases.”

Some in the movement are frightened that they are not in the driver’s seat any longer. “We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. “We’re going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack.”

Perkin’s is to join other members of the religious right, fiscal conservatives and GOP insiders Thursday for an emergency strategy meeting, Politico reports. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society are also expected to attend.

Religious right watchers say that while the chips may be down for the religious right at the federal level, voters are sure to see their candidates crop up at the state and local level.

“The Religious Right is not dead,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, “but I’m happy that most Americans seem very wary of the movement’s reckless merger of religion and politics. Those of us who value church-state separation must remain on the alert to counter the Religious Right’s next gambit.”

He said they are down but not out. “James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Richard Land and Company did everything but declare Obama the Antichrist,” said Lynn. “In the end, they kept their own flock in line, but the majority of Americans were unmoved. On Jan. 20, the Religious Right’s eight-year run of the White House will come to a screeching halt.”

The Atlantic Monthly’s Marc Ambinger posts this reader tip:

I’m a student at Carleton College who has contributed (financially and with my time) to the Obama campaign. I just got an automated call from Jeff Blodgett, the chair of the MN campaign. The text of the call was:

“Hello, this is Jeff Blodgett from the Minnesota for Obama campaign. Our initial data shows this election is significantly closer than the polls predicted. We are putting out an urgent call for volunteers… We are organized groups to knock on doors at five P.M., or earlier if you can, for our final GOTV operation.” This was followed by different numbers to call based on your residence.

However, it seems Pennsylvania and Virginia supporters are also getting a similar message.

Friends — Barack needs your help now — our data indicates that the results will be very close in many states. I can’t emphasize enough how urgent this message is. Please go to http://my.barackobama.com/call and start calling as soon as you can. We are not going to hit our goal of 500,000 calls for today by 3pm Central, unless we get at least 2,000 more people calling for the next hour. Can you call now and continue for as long as you can manage? http://my.barackobama.com/call Thank you. Judith

MnIndy’s Molly Priesmeyer highlighted Minnesota Majority’s voter suppression antics on Friday.

St. Paul resident Larry Johnson says that he got a telephone call Tuesday evening from a woman who said she was from the Secretary of State’s office and questioned his “voting practices.” She then told Johnson that she was working with Jeff Davis of Minnesota Majority. Davis is the group’s president.

Ritchie says the SoS’s office has forwarded Johnson’s affidavit to the county attorneys office for prosecution. “We want to let all Minnesotans know that if you or anyone in your family receives a phone call from any individual claiming to be working with or associated with the Office of the Secretary of State, politely get their name and phone number and then hang-up and immediately contact our office at 1-877-600-8683,” Ritchie said at a press conference today.

The Uptake’s Noah Kunin was there. We’ll embed his video when it’s available.

Meanwhile, here is a copy of Larry Johnson’s affidavit; click on the image for a larger version.

Here is the press releases from the Secretary of State’s office:

St. Paul, Minn.- – Secretary of State Mark Ritchie today (Wednesday, Oct. 29) held a news conference to alert citizens to voter intimidation tactics occurring in Minnesota.

Ritchie warned voters of telephone calls from individuals falsely claiming to be associated with the Office of the Secretary of State raising questions about the voting practices of the person being called.

“We have a proud tradition of free and fair elections in Minnesota,” Ritchie said. “Misrepresentation and voter intimidation will not be tolerated.”

Ritchie’s office has alerted the Ramsey County Attorney and the Office of the U.S. Attorney to a complaint filed with the Office of the Secretary of State by a St. Paul resident. The complainant stated that he received a telephone call last night from an individual claiming to be calling on behalf of the Office of the Secretary of State and challenging his voter record. Upon further questioning, the caller also claimed to be associated with Jeff Davis, president of the organization Minnesota Majority.

“We want to let all Minnesotans know that if you or anyone in your family receives a phone call from any individual claiming to be working with or associated with the Office of the Secretary of State, politely get their name and phone number and then hang-up and immediately contact our office at 1-877-600-8683,” Ritchie said.

Allegations of voter intimidation and deceptive practices are investigated and prosecuted by county attorneys. To report voter intimidation, citizens may contact their county attorney directly or the Office of the Secretary of State at 1-877-600-8683.

The Office of the Secretary of State forwards all allegations to county attorneys for further investigation and prosecution.

As part of HAVA, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were created to monitor and accredit the laboratories that test America’s numerous voting systems. But those bureaucratic entities in place to ensure credibility aren’t exactly doing their jobs.

According to the GAO’s findings, important elements are still missing from both [the EAC and NIST] programs, such as:

1. EAC has not developed program management practices that are fully consistent with what NIST has found to be hallmarks of an effective accreditation program, nor has the agency adequately specified how evaluations are to be performed and documented.

2. There are no explicit qualifications or training requirements for assessors.

3. NIST’s documentation of assessments was not sufficient to determine how the checklists were applied and how decisions were reached.

No training? No documentation? No follow through? Yes, the organizations responsible for accrediting the labs are themselves full of shortcomings. Sounds like they could make a run for VP. Read the entire report here (pdf). But be warned: It’s a puzzle of mumbo jumbo that requires its own audit.