Marriage Group Backs Liberal Dem over Gay Republican
In a Tuesday email to supporters entitled, "Carl DeMaio Wants You to Vote For Him, But He Totally Disrespects Your Vote," the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has followed through on a promise to "actively oppose" the candidate the GOP establishment has branded a "New Generation Republican." The email endorses voting for the incumbent Democrat, Scott Peters, even though he is "wrong on the issues."
DeMaio is locked in an extremely tight, highly-targeted battle with freshman Peters in the San Diego district. Accusations of plagiarism, office break-ins and sexual harassment have plagued the DeMaio camp, while DeMaio slams Peters over alleged hypocrisy involving pensions. Both camps have run a barrage of negative ads against one another. Meanwhile, polls show the race neck-and-neck between the two.
Before the sexual harassment allegations became more widely known, NOM, the Family Research Council (FRC) and CITIZENLink had released a letter that put Republican leadership on notice of their "active opposition" to DeMaio, as well as two other candidates up for election in 2014. However, the first letter stopped short of supporting Peters.
The new letter echoes calls from some local Tea Party and conservative leaders to support Peters.