By Karen Ocamb

Not since Harvey Milk organized gay support for unions opposing Coors Beer in the 1970s or the first gay voting bloc was generated for Bill Clinton in 1992 has the LGBT community been so deeply involved with a mainstream political movement. The hook this time to get gays to turn out to vote in the Nov. 8 special election has been to incite LGBT voters to "pay back" Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his veto of the gay marriage bill by voting "no" on his package of ballot initiatives, Props 73-77.

Many LGBT voters may not realize what's at stake for the gay community, however, in an election that appears to be essentially non-gay specific -- namely political clout and reciprocity. Planned Parenthood and the Alliance for a Better California, a coalition of teachers, firefighters, nurses and other union groups, have specifically reached out to the LGBT community to join their coalitions in defeating the Schwarzenegger ballot measures. In addition to Stonewall Democratic Club turning out members for phone banking and precinct walking, Equality California has galvanized its chapters in Fresno and Bakersfield and other Central Valley areas where the coalitions have little reach.

In return, the coalitions have shared knowledge of the latest techniques in voter data collection, volunteer grassroots organizing, and media campaigning that give organizations such as Equality California and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Vote for Equality Project a head-start in preparing for the anticipated anti-gay marriage/domestic partnership constitutional amendment on next June's ballot. Additionally, in the traditional manner of reciprocity, the coalitions promise that if the LGBT community turns out to defeat Schwarzenegger's initiative packages on Nov. 8, they will work to defeat the anti-gay amendment next year.

The California Republican Party and the Schwarzenegger Special Election team, lead by Rob Stutzman, former head of the anti-gay Prop. 22, has apparently not made similar overtures to gay Republicans. Rather, much to the consternation of those who believe the governor is essentially pro-gay and note that he signed several LGBT bills this year, the Schwarzenegger campaign team brought in Gary Marx, known as one of the top liaisons to evangelicals and other social conservatives from President Bush's re-election campaign and the man directly tied to the success of the 11 anti-gay marriage initiatives last year. Marx was hired to turn out Christian conservatives by focusing on Prop. 73, the parental consent measure. No doubt the religious right will expect reciprocity from Schwarzenegger in the same way they expect it from Bush.

Meanwhile, principled gay Republicans continue to support the governor and what they believe to be his reform agenda. "Log Cabin is actively encouraging our membership to vote in the election," Log Cabin California Director Jeff Bissiri told IN. "The special election is not about the governor but the critical need to reform state government. Log Cabin believes that defeating the proposed constitutional amendments next year should be the LGBT community's single focus."

Schwarzenegger's popularity has taken a dive since last year as his image becomes more that of a politician than an action star. His re-election announcement helped a little bit. But his strident, somewhat whiney on-camera charges that the nurses, teachers and firefighter unions are out to get him have not gone over well. After pulling those ads off the air for about a week, the governor will be back on TV with a more humble 30-second ad, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"I've had a lot to learn, and sometimes I learned the hard way," Schwarzenegger says to the camera. "But my heart is in this, and I want to do right by you." Calling his ballot measures critical to "reforming Sacramento," he says, "Give me the tools to do the job you elected me to do."

A more popular politician, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has been hitting the stump opposing Schwarzenegger's package of initiatives. On Oct. 27 he joined Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and legendary union activist Dolores Huerta at an Alliance for a Better California-sponsored rally downtown. About 1,500 people showed up, mostly Latino union members and sprinkled among them were about 100 LGBT activists.

Most of the media, however, focused on the 75 nurses, including those identified as LGBT, who left the downtown rally to go to Long Beach to protest Schwarzenegger's appearance at the California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women and Families. When protesters interrupted him last year, Schwarzenegger called the nurses "a special interest" and joked that he "kicked their butt." This year he held his tongue when nurses again demonstrated in the auditorium.

The gay political community has also learned to hold its tongue so as not to detract from the focus on the special election. In a recent Bay Area Reporter interview with Nunez, a co-author on the marriage equality bill with Assemblymember Mark Leno, the speaker said the gay marriage bill would not be re-introduced next year. Apparently he held no conversations with Leno or Equality California prior to making the definitive statement that the bill would be considered in 2007.

Though at first shocked that the speaker would kill the bill without consulting with Leno or the LGBT Caucus, politicos like Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, considered the statement strategically. Nunez, Kors told IN, was "giving his opinion" that "it didn't make sense to move forward with the bill, just to have the governor come out and veto it and disappoint and hurt the community again." Rather, said Kors, "the focus needs to be on re-electing legislators who voted for the bill and electing a governor who will sign it in 2007."

And right now, Kors said, the focus needs to be on the special election and defeating the initiatives. And that would demonstrate LGBT political clout.

For more information on the ballot propositions, go to www.eqca.org, www.logcabin.org/logcabinca/home.html, www.stonewall-dems.org and www.betterca.com/la_county_offices.