From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 94 17:42:22 EDT

Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund
1012 14th Street NW, Suite 707
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 842-8679 (phone)
(202) 289-3863 (fax)
email: [email-masked]

NEWS RELEASE

Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund 
Recommends Ten New Candidates 
                           
           National Group Supports Seventeen Openly Gay
               Candidates in Ten States
                        
WASHINGTON, DC -- Agust 1994 -- The Gay and Lesbian Victory
Fund today recommended ten more candidates to its national donor
network, bringing the total number of current recommended candidates to
seventeen.  All seventeen candidates underwent rigorous screenings to
determine their viability as potential public officials, according to 
Victory Fund Executive Director William Waybourn.  The ten newly
recommended candidates and their races are:

       -- Karen Burstein for New York State Attorney General
       -- Tom Duane for U.S. House of Representatives
       -- Cal Anderson for Washington State Senate 
       -- Don Moreland for Washington House of Representatives
       -- Derek Belt for Massachusetts House of Representatives 
       -- Ken Cheuvront for Arizona House of Representatives
       -- John Hannay for Maryland House of Delegates
       -- Chuck Carpenter for Oregon House of Representatives      
       -- Tom Ammiano for San Francisco Board of Supervisors 
       -- Teri Schwartz for Los Angeles Superior Court

     New York State Attorney General candidate Karen Burstein is the
first open lesbian to run for major statewide office.  Karen is the only
candidate who has experience in all three branches of government and
has the advantage of being the only woman in the Democratic primary
race.  She served with distinction in the New York State Senate, as Chair
of the State Consumer Protection Board, as New York Auditor General,
as President of the State Civil Service Commission, and as a Kings
County (Brooklyn) Family Court Judge. 

     Congressional candidate Tom Duane made history in 1991 when
he won a seat on the New York City Council as the first openly gay,
openly HIV-positive candidate to run for and win elective office.  Tom is
making history again as the first openly gay, HIV-positive candidate to
run for Congress.  Prior to his election to the city council, Tom served
four terms as Democratic District Leader and as a member of the New
York Democratic Executive and Judiciary Committees.

     Ken Cheuvront is one of three candidates in the Democratic
primary for two open District 25 (Central Phoenix) seats in the Arizona
House of Representatives.  Ken has good name identification thanks to
his involvement in civic organizations and his 1990 campaign for the
State Senate.  He received 44 percent of the vote in the race and the
senator who won the race has endorsed Ken's candidacy for the House. 
Ken is a local businessman with strong family ties in the district and is
well known and well respected.

     John Hannay is running for one of three District 44 seats in the
Maryland House of Delegates.  The district includes the commercial and
cultural center of the city's gay and lesbian community.  A Program
Manager with the AIDS Administration of the Maryland Department of
Health and former Executive Director of Baltimore's Gay and Lesbian
Community Center, John is co-founder of the Free State Justice
Campaign, a statewide organization that promotes legislation to end
discrimination against lesbians and gay men. 

     After serving three terms as the only openly gay member of the
Washington State Legislature, Washington State Representative Cal
Anderson is a frontrunner in the race for the State Senate.  A Seattle
Times survey of 147 legislators recently rated him as the third most
effective legislator in the state.  Cal is a visible and vocal supporter 
of gay and lesbian civil rights and was the main sponsor of Washington
State's Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Bill (H.B. 1443) which he has
guided through the House of Representatives three times.

     Seattle businessman Don Moreland is in a seven-way primary race
for the open 36th District (Seattle) seat on the Washington State House
of Representatives.  He has already received early endorsements from
Seattle's popular mayor and seven of nine city councilmembers.  Don
was a Commissioner on the Seattle Human Rights Commission and
served on the Governor's first AIDS Task Force and the Governor's Civil
Rights Task Force.  He was a founder of the Privacy Fund, the statewide
political action committee working on issues of concern to the gay and
lesbian community.

     School Board President Tom Ammiano has joined the city-wide
race for five at-large seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. 
Tom is a veteran of Harvey Milk's successful bid for the board of
supervisors.  A special education teacher and community organizer, he
was San Francisco's first openly gay teacher and the first openly gay
member of the San Francisco School Board.  He helped establish the Gay
Teachers Coalition, which successfully lobbied the school board to
recognize gay teachers rights.  Tom established the Gay and Lesbian
Speakers Bureau for San Francisco Schools, began counseling programs
for gay and lesbian students and promoted condom availability on school
sites. 

     Derek Belt is the unchallenged Democratic nominee for the open
2nd Bristol (Attleboro) seat in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives and has been endorsed by the popular retiring
Democratic incumbent.  Derek has strong ties to the community and is
targeting progressive voters with special outreach to the gay and lesbian
and Hispanic communities, human services workers, senior citizens, and
women.  Professionally, Derek has worked as a Case Manager at the
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts since 1991, volunteers with a wide
range of groups, helped found Neighbors Against Bigotry and
the Triboro Triangles, and serves on the Attleboro Council on Aging. 

     On May 17, Chuck Carpenter won the Republican primary for the
open District 7 seat in the Oregon House of Representatives.  Chuck is an 
International Trade and Operations Analyst with Nike Inc.  He serves on 
the Board of Directors of the Pacific Northwest International Trade 
Association, and as chair of its Trade Policy Committee.  Chuck has 
the support of a large number of business and professional groups 
including the Association of Oregon Industries.  He is endorsed by the 
Log Cabin Club and state's most influential newspaper, The Oregonian. 

     Los Angeles Superior Court candidate Teri Schwartz won the June
7 primary and must now face the second-place finisher in the November
8 run-off.  Endorsed by the Los Angeles Times and every major law
enforcement agency in the county, Teri has extensive Superior Court
experience as both a defense lawyer and as a prosecutor.  As Deputy 
District Attorney assigned to L.A.'s Hardcore Gang Division for the 
past five years, Teri has successfully prosecuted and assisted in the 
prosecution of 75 gang murder cases.  The Los Angeles Gay County Bar 
Association has given her its highest rating. 

     These ten candidates join the Victory Fund's seven previously-
recommended candidates: 

     -- Tony Miller for California Secretary of State 
     -- Will Fitzpatrick for Rhode Island State Senate 
     -- Sheila Kuehl for California State Assembly 
     -- Tim Van Zandt for Missouri House of Representatives 
     -- George Eighmey for Oregon House of Representatives 
     -- Susan Leal for San Francisco Board of Supervisors 
     -- Bonnie Dumanis for San Diego City Court 

     In addition to the seventeen candidates whose races are still 
pending, the Victory Fund racked up two early wins when Cook County 
(Chicago) Circuit Court candidate Tom Chiola and Dade County 
(Miami) Court candidate Victoria Sigler were unchallenged in their 
general elections.

[Full profiles of these candidates will be available by anonymous
 ftp (\pub\qrd\orgs\glvf) from the Queer Resources Directory in 
mid-August.  For more information about any of the candidates 
please contact Kathleen DeBold at (202) 842-8679 or 
[email-masked].]