Subject: Read this one: Clinton/Gore '96 & DOMA Advertising
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked] [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 16:15:11 -0400

SKIDDING TOWARD THE FINISH LINE
President Caught in Radio Chest Thumping over DOMA Signature    In a move
that shocked and angered lesbian and gay civil rights leaders, the Clinton
campaign last week ran two days of radio advertising touting the President's
signature of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies federal
recognition of same gender marriages performed in local jurisdictions and
allows states to do the same.  The ads, which provoked an unprecedented
Republican effort questioning the President's commitment to gay rights,
played on 70 Christian-oriented radio stations in nine states in what
campaign officials described as "third tier" markets.  The spots were
designed to respond to a Dole campaign ad titled "Moral Crisis" which
attacked the President for his support of late term abortions, condom
education and an end to the ban on gays serving in the military.  The Clinton
ads ran October 14 and 15, but were replaced on the 16th by ones that did not
mention DOMA.
    "This is a mistake and a serious political miscalculation," said
Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign in
Washington, blasting the DOMA spot.  "It was designed to pander to a segment
of the electorate that isn't going to support the President under any
circumstances."
    The ads also proved embarrassing to gay officials in the campaign and the
administration.  Richard Socarides, White House liaison to the lesbian and
gay community currently on leave to work on the campaign, characterized the
ad as an ill-conceived response to the Dole radio attack.  He said that
neither gay nor other senior officials in the campaign knew about the ad
until they began to receive complaints from activists.  Mark Benoit,
responsible for lesbian and gay outreach for the New York State Democratic
Party, said that the ads "came in under the radar" and that had senior
Clinton adviser Harold Ickes known about them, "Harold would have killed
them."   
    Socarides acknowledged that the ads were produced by "our media
consultant," Squier, Knapp, Ochs, which is headed by Democratic heavy hitter
Bob Squier.  Asked how such a prominent Washington firm could be out of sync
with the campaign's views, Socarides said that Squier had responsibility for
as many as 1000 television and 2500 radio ads this year.  Gay campaign
officials offered no explanation as to why as late as 5 pm on October 15, the
second day of the ad run, Don Foley, a top aide to Clinton-Gore press
secretary Joe Lockhart, was insisting that the DOMA spot would continue to
air as originally scheduled.
    The flap over the DOMA ad was particularly stunning in light of recent
Clinton campaign boasts about the strength of its outreach efforts to gay men
and lesbians.  Brian Bond, Democratic National Committee (DNC) liaison to the
community, said that he oversaw the distribution of approximately $125,000 to
state parties and local clubs for gay-targeted media.  He explained that much
of that money was raised from prominent gay donors with the understanding
that, while not technically "earmarked," it would be used in the community.
 Bond said that California and New York received the largest segment of the
money, but that some also went to other states including Texas, Florida,
Illinois and New Mexico.  Eric Bauman, president of the Stonewall Democratic
Club in Los Angeles, said that the DNC was the single largest contributor to
its $100,00 media effort, providing "much, much more support" than in 1992.
    In another odd twist on the DOMA ad debacle, the Republican National
Committee (RNC) announced October 18 that it would use the incident in its
own radio ads to question the President's commitment to the gay community.
 The RNC will run ads on "gay-oriented" stations in Northern California
asking: "Ever wonder if someone who claims to be a friend was talking about
you behind your back?  Classic Clinton: running a "family values" ad against
abortion and same-sex marriage on Christian radio while telling you he's a
pro-choice gay rights supporter.  Can you believe this guy?"  The new ad fits
into Bob Dole's recent strategy of challenging the President on the issue of
trust and focusing most of his marbles on an upset victory in California.
 The RNC ad offers no examples of how Dole responds to concerns of the
lesbian and gay community.
    The week's advertising antics upstaged the discussion of gay issues in
the final Presidential debate on October 16.  In a town hall format in San
Diego, two audience members asked the candidates for their views on gay
rights, a topic which professional journalists have never broached in a
Presidential debate.  Clinton used the opportunity to voice his support for
the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which failed last month in the Senate
by only one vote, but was otherwise lukewarm in his endorsement of equal
rights.  "We have a lot of differences in our country, and some of us believe
that other people's decisions are wrong, even immoral," the President said.
 "But under our Constitution, if you show up tomorrow and obey the laws and
you work hard and you do what you're supposed to do, you're entitled to equal
treatment."  Dole, voicing general opposition to discrimination of any form,
specifically rejected calls for what he termed "special rights" by the gay
community.  Both candidates declined to utter the word "gay" or to make use
of the full three minutes allotted to answer the two questions, choosing
instead to return to earlier questions.  Nor did Clinton challenge Dole's
remarks about "special rights." n