Columnist Jon Ralston: GOP pins faith on anti-gay sentiment

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 9:41 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky senator who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is worried.

Why? What else, this time of year? Money.

McConnell fretted in a recent e-mail sent to GOP donors that Vice President Al Gore's $10 million advantage in cash on hand "means (Gore) can barrage Governor Bush and our Senate candidates with a nationwide, negative media campaign -- and we have no resources to respond."

You can feel McConnell's pain as his group continues to fund those wonderfully positive commercials in Nevada about Democratic Senate candidate Ed Bernstein. Actually, while McConnell may be upset and Republicans may be worried, Nevada has what most in-state party strategists hope will be the great equalizer to Bush's pre-debate hemorrhaging, Senate contender John Ensign's strange rhetorical peregrinations and congressional hopeful Jon Porter's disappearing viability.

That, of course, is the already-qualified and very popular ballot question that will prevent the clear and present danger of those gay couples migrating from states where they have recognized homeosexual unions to settle here in Nevada. I understand the National Guard already is standing by.

Why, a jaded observer might presume that because there already is a Nevada law prohibiting same-sex marriages that this has been ordered up from the LDS apostles in Salt Lake and exploited by the conservative operatives in Las Vegas to increase Republican turnout this year. But that would discount the true believers who see this as evil incarnate and are working to protect the children from those gay couples streaming across the border and threatening the sanctity of life as we know it in Nevada. To call this a cynical ploy, exploiting the overt and latent bigotry toward homosexuals that exists within certain church groups and even has pervaded -- dare I acknowledge it? -- Democratic circles, would just be outrageous. So I won't say it.

The motivations notwithstanding, what will the impact of the same-sex marriage initiative, which has upwards of 60 percent support in some polls, be in Campaign '00? Will it be the final nail in Bernstein's coffin, the life raft to save a drowning Porter, the extra tug that pulls Bush over the finish line here in Nevada?

There are two schools of thought. One says that with thousands of Democrats signing the petition -- nearly 20,000 registered voters -- this could have a huge impact. It's not just the Republican base that will go to the polls, this theory goes, but redneck Democrats, too, will vote for this petition.

Why, that sounds like the same coalition that helped elect Kenny Guinn governor last cycle. Not coincidentally, Steve Wark, the mastermind of Guinn's grass-roots strategy and who now has a regional contract with McConnell's organization, has been orchestrating support for the same-sex petition.

Wark, who once organized church groups to get himself elected state GOP chairman, knows how to create voter lists, which were originally designed to also help the Republicans capture the Assembly until the GOP did a Division III recruiting job for a Division I task. Those lists still may help the Republicans close the lower house gap, but some believe they will also help put Ensign over the top and make Porter competitive.

Others, though, think that Ensign will win without Wark's help and that Porter, even with outside ad money about to pour in, may be too far behind. And, some wonder, is the same-sex initiative really drawing people out who are new voters? Yes, those for the issue will go out to vote while those against the idea are not particularly energized. But, as one Republican put it: "How many people go to sleep every night just wanting to make sure gays can't get married?"

I sure hope not too many. But Republicans here are hoping that there are a lot of them to ensure they keep the Nevada world safe from the awful flood of gay couples and, oh, yes, to ensure their candidates get elected, too.