Subject: GLVF recommends G/L candidates
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 17:36:10 EST

Victory Fund Recommends Six New
Candidates to National Donor Network

       WASHINGTON, D.C.    10 January 1993    The Gay and Lesbian
Victory Fund has recommended seven more openly gay and lesbian candidates
to its national donor network, giving them access to the financial and
technical support they need to conduct winning campaigns.  The qualified
candidates and their races are Tony Miller for California Secretary of State,
Will
Fitzpatrick for Rhode Island State Senate, George Eighmey for Oregon
House of Representatives, John Duran for California State Assembly, Susan
Leal for San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Barb Jones for Tempe City
Council.  All six have undergone rigorous screening to determine their
viability as potential public officials, according to the Victory Fund's
Executive Director, William Waybourn.

       The first openly gay man in the nation to run for statewide office,
Tony Miller has the qualifications and depth of experience to become
California's next Secretary of State.  Currently the California Secretary of
State's Chief Deputy and legal counsel, Tony Miller has a history of gay
rights activism.  When Lyndon LaRouche succeeded in placing an AIDS
quarantine
initiative on the California ballot, Miller blocked his efforts to have
stated
in the ballot pamphlet that mosquitoes spread HIV.  When the state Attorney
General and Legislative Counsel said that same sex couples could not register
the names of their family associations, Miller successfully challenged them.
He cleared the way for couples to receive legal recognition of their
partnerships with the Secretary of State's office, using laws providing for
the
formation of nonprofit associations.  Miller has worked for the incumbent
Secretary of State, March Fong Eu, for 25 years.  After earning his J.D. from
the University of California School of Law, Miller was appointed to the Fair
Political Practices Commission and then became Chief Legal Counsel to the
Secretary of State.  In 1981, he was appointed Chief Deputy Secretary of
State, a constitutionally recognized public office which he still holds.
Miller
will become the Acting Secretary of State when Eu is formally appointed the
United States Ambassador to Micronesia. [primary:  June 7, 1994; general
election:  November 8]

       Rhode Island State Senator Will Fitzpatrick made history in 1992
when he won 62 percent of the primary vote against a 15-year, anti-gay
incumbent, and then defeated his opponent by 51 percent to 42 percent in the
general election.  Since then, he has earned a reputation as one of the
state's
most respected and accessible senators.  Despite his success as a legislator,
Fitzpatrick faces daunting opposition in his upcoming election, having been

targeted by the radical right which is actively mobilizing for his defeat.
Among
his many appointments, Fitzpatrick serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee,
the Senate Health, Education and Welfare Committee, the Commission on
Religious, Racial and Ethnic Harassment, and as Vice-Chair of the Joint
Committee on Environment and  Energy.  He was the prime sponsor of a
recycling bill and an enterprise zone bill to create jobs and improve
decaying
areas of his District, he co-sponsored Rhode Island's hate-crimes reporting
bill, which is now law, and he spearheaded the fight for the sexual
orientation
anti-discrimination bill which passed 30 to 17 in the Senate, but was
subsequently defeated in the House.  [primary:  September 13, 1994; general
election:  November 8]

       In May 1993, Portland attorney and activist George Eighmey became
Oregon's second openly gay state representative when he was appointed to the
vacant 14th District seat.  Describing himself as "pro-choice, pro-family and
pro-diversity," Eighmey has been targeted for defeat by Oregon's Radical
Right (whom he describes as "biblically dysfunctional").  He helped pass
legislation preventing the enforcement of recent anti-gay laws in various
cities
in Oregon.  He is well known for his involvement in neighborhood
associations and the City of Portland Adjustment Committee, is former
President of the Lincoln High School Dad's Club and treasurer of the Wilson
High School Booster Club, and has served as a member of the Oregon Speak-
Out Project and as a Board member of OUR HOUSE (a Portland residential
AIDS facility).  A veteran of the U.S. Air Force and the father of two
children, Eighmey vows to "demand a strong voice for all underrepresented
populations."  [primary:  May 6, 1994; general election:  November 1]

       Civil rights attorney John Duran is running for the 42nd district seat
    in the California State Assembly.  When he ran for this seat in 1992,
Duran
garnered an astonishing 35 percent of the vote against powerful 10-year
incumbent, Burt Margolin.  With Margolin stepping down in 1994, Duran is
gearing up to win this powerful State Assembly seat and become the first
openly gay state legislator in California history.  As leader of the
Sacramento-
based Lobby for Individual Freedom and Equality (LIFE AIDS Lobby), Duran
has a proven ability for getting important legislation through the California
State Legislature.  His experience as an AIDS and gay rights lobbyist gives
him a decided advantage over a field with little or no legislative
experience,
as does the healthy amount of name recognition he enjoys thanks to his
activism and to his last campaign.   The only Latino and the only
pro-business
candidate in the crowded field, Duran has already received numerous key
endorsements from community and entertainment industry leaders, and has
gotten the nod from Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy, the ranking
Democratic state official. [primary:  June 7, 1994; general election:
November 8]

       On June 7, 1993, attorney and native San Franciscan Susan Leal was
appointed to complete Roberta Achtenberg's term on the Board of Supervisors.
Leal is the first Latina to serve on the Board and the first openly lesbian
Latina ever to serve in elective office.  Combining over 15 years experience
in
government, business and healthcare with a proven ability to build coalitions
across the political spectrum, Leal took office with a broad base of support
from the Latino, business, legal and feminist communities.  As Vice President
of Healthcare COMPARE Corporation, she was instrumental in helping major
corporations and unions reduce their health expenditures.  She serves on the
board's Health, Public Safety and Environment, and Government Efficiency
and Labor Committees, on the Mayor's Task Force on Juvenile Justice, and as
the board's liaison to the county's Managed Care Health Task Force.  An
outspoken proponent of gay and lesbian rights, Leal called for the removal of
homophobic Baptist Minister Eugene Lumpkin from the San Francisco Human
Rights Commission.  [general election:  November 8, 1994].

       Arizona lesbian activist Barb Jones is running in a nonpartisan,
citywide race for the Tempe City Council.  At a time when voters seek
change, Jones has the advantage over "business-as-usual" career politicians,
and citizens and the press have commented favorably on her abilities and on
her "guts" to run as an open lesbian.  The founder and current director of
the
nonprofit Lesbian Resource Center, a community-based organization designed
to meet the needs of Phoenix-area lesbians, Jones also serves as board
co-chair

of the Valley of the Sun Gay and Lesbian Community Center, of which she is
a founding member.  Jones has already established her credentials with the
local political establishment through her work to include a
non-discrimination
policy in city government and a hate crimes unit in the Tempe Police
Department.  She even convinced the mayor to declare Gay and Lesbian Pride
Week during the local pride celebration    the first time an elected official
had agreed to attend Desert Pride.  [primary:  22 March, 1994; general
election: May 10]

       Miller, Fitzpatrick, Eighmey, Duran, Leal and Jones join the Victory
Fund's other 1994 recommended candidates, Tom Chiola for Cook County
Circuit Court, Victoria Sigler for Dade County Court and Ken Wolf for Fort
Lauderdale City Commission.  Tom Chiola will become Chicago's first
openly gay judge and Illinois' first countywide openly gay elected official
if he wins his bid for a seat on the Circuit Court of Cook County.  Immensely
qualified for this position, Chiola served for over five years as the Chief
Administrative Law Judge for the Illinois Department of Professional
Regulation and, as its General Counsel, is the most highly placed openly gay
official in Illinois.  Because he has tried cases involving such issues as
gross malpractice by incompetent physicians, racial steering by real estate
brokers, and massive fraud on government programs, his caseload has generated
considerable media attention.  Chiola is widely respected for his volunteer
work in the gay community and has taken an active role in the fight to pass a
gay rights bill in the Illinois legislature. [primary:  March 15, 1994;
general
election:  November 8].

       A top-notch litigator and passionate advocate for women's minority and
gay rights, Victoria Sigler's depth of trial experience makes her an
outstanding candidate in the race for Dade County Court Judge.  A former
professor at the local community college and Executive Assistant for the
Office of the Dade County Public Defender, she is known throughout Dade
County
and is highly respected for her legal abilities and her dedication to public
service.  As an attorney, Sigler has frequently represented gays and
lesbians.
"I find that my presence as an out lesbian invokes confidence in my clients
and
inhibits outward discrimination by other court personnel," says Sigler.  A
committed community activist, Sigler is a founding member of the Gay and
Lesbian Lawyers Association and does pro bono work for people with AIDS
[general election: early September 1994].

       Fort Lauderdale City Commission candidate Ken Wolf offers the
lesbian and gay community an excellent opportunity to elect the first openly
gay official in a major Florida city.  Extremely qualified for this office,
his
endorsement from the Florida Consumer Action Network reads, "You are a
model leader for the 21st century.  You have an optimistic, can-do attitude
that
is desperately needed in Florida government.  Through your record of
community service, you have proven yourself as an environmentalist and a
humanitarian concerned about the needs of all segments of our community."
A senior executive with a major marketing and public relations agency, Wolf
is drawing upon his political experience as gubernatorial aide to Governor
Lawton Chiles and as a member of the Clinton Campaign's Florida steering
committee to secure this victory. [primary:  February 8, 1994; run-off:
March 8]

       The Victory Fund is a national donor network of individuals dedicated
to electing qualified openly lesbian and gay candidates to public office.
"Being represented by our own is the highest form of political empowerment,"
says Waybourn.  "Every time an openly gay or lesbian candidate crosses a
political threshold, the door is opened for others to follow."

                                   ####

[For more information about these races, or the Gay and Lesbian Victory
Fund, please contact Kathleen DeBold at
The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund
1012 14th Street, NW   #707
Washington, DC  20005
voice:(202) 842-8679
fax: (202) 289-3863
email: [email-masked]]