Good news: An article from the San Jose Mercury News today, highlighted on Daily Kos: Prop. 8: Money pours in to oppose same-sex marriage ban.
Detail point A: And when people watch the No on 8 ads (which that money is paying for), they realize: “Duh! The Yes on 8 ads I’ve been saturated with are TOTALLY LYING TO ME.” And they decide to vote no on 8.
Now the bad news: The money that’s been pouring in at a rate that still leaves us way, way behind in the money-for-ad-time race.
Detail point A: even totalling all the real and promised donations, we’re still behind by a good $5 million. (Here’s a map from the LA Times, though math nerds could just add up the numbers in the article.)
Detail point B: as the article notes, many unique factors about this proposition race means that, unlike most proposition battles, the “No” side has a lot more traction to gain. The proposition asks to change existing interpretation of the law, but it’s a recently noted interpretation. Then there’s the Gavin Newsom factor (just read the article).
And detail point C:
The national dynamics of the presidential race, with Republican nominee John McCain apparently trailing Democrat Barack Obama, could be providing a fundraising boost for the Yes on 8 side, said Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University.
“For those folks on the evangelical side, who have no place to put their money because they have pretty much given up on the McCain campaign, which they didn’t like in the first place, this becomes a great place to put their resources,” Gerston said.
With the campaign now in its final three weeks, donations coming in now are critical for both sides.
“This is the time when the no side needs to be striking back,” McCuan said. “The spots the yes folks have been running have been so picture-perfect for the voters they are talking to that the no campaign needs to not just energize their voters, they need to cut through the clutter on the yes side.”
Please consider tossing something more into the pot, like I just did today. My theme for today’s donation: this weekend’s date! I could live without dinner & a movie a lot more than I could live without the legal and fiscal protections my kids get with my marriage to my beloved.
And please, please pass it on. Love can overcome hate. It really can. But not if we sit on our arses. Remember good ole JFK’s remix of Dante: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
Those who don’t believe in Hell could simply substitute Alaska. Though it would probably change the meaning of the statement a tad.
Now off to set up chairs for Terry Baum’s No on 8 benefit performance tonight!