DeMaio rated "Unacceptable"

Monday April 28, 2008

(San Diego) - The San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC), the chartered Democratic club serving San Diego County's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, announced today that it has rated Carl DeMaio, an openly gay candidate for the San Diego City Council in District Five, as "unacceptable." As the SDDC's lowest possible rating, its use is rare in any election cycle and reserved for candidates that are antithetical to LGBT and progressive rights in San Diego. Its use for a gay candidate is unprecedented in the club's 32-year history.

SDDC President Andrea Villa said that the primary reason for the rating was DeMaio's overwhelming incompatibility as a candidate with the SDDC's mission, which is to elect LGBT and LGBT-friendly Democrats to office. While DeMaio, an openly gay registered Republican who is running for a non-partisan race, was eligible for an "acceptable" rating (the club's highest recommendation for a Republican), he instead earned the lowest possible rating given by the SDDC, that of "unacceptable."

"We have serious questions about whether Carl DeMaio, an openly gay man, will support issues of the most basic importance to his own community if he is elected to the San Diego City Council," Villa stated. "We are especially concerned by the fact that one of his campaign's biggest supporters has bankrolled the latest attempt to permanently prevent Mr DeMaio's own LGBT community from obtaining basic human rights here in California."

DeMaio's first campaign fund raiser was held last year at the home of San Diego developer Doug Manchester and his wife, Elizabeth. Doug and Elizabeth Manchester have donated the maximum amount allowed to DeMaio's city council campaign. This year, Manchester has donated as much as $125,000 to ProtectMarriage.com, the political committee that has been collecting signatures to place a proposition on this fall's state ballot that would insert a ban on same-sex marriage into the California constitution.

Last week the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), PlanetOut and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) all canceled events planned to be held at the Manchester Hyatt during San Diego LGBT Pride Week in late July.

"We believe it is telling that these national LGBT rights organizations have so quickly disaffiliated themselves from any dealings, regardless how inadvertent they may have been, with Mr. Manchester - something that Mr. DeMaio, as a gay man in San Diego, should have done long ago," Villa said.