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Ammiano Campaign Reinvigorates City's Voters 'We have been a Voice for the People Shut-Out' |
In the coarse of a hard-fought campaign, however, Ammiano volunteers registered thousands of new voters, gay and straight alike, in a state where gay and lesbian candidates and issues will loom large in the March 2000 primaries. The Ammiano campaign has also energized San Franciscans and in spite of his loss Ammiano sounded more like a victor addressing his many fans. Only a short time beforehand he'd been a write-in candidate who'd forced the incumbent Mayor into yesterday's run-off, "We have been a voice for the people who are traditionally shut out and we will be shut out no longer,'' Ammiano told cheering volunteers and supporters.
"Tom Ammiano deserves a great deal of credit for energizing the political process for the people of San Francisco, mounting a stunning grass-roots campaign and drawing national attention to the contributions of gay and lesbian Americans to the civic life of our country. "We are proud to have supported him. We must remember that, as an openly gay write-in candidate with a shoestring budget, he came in well ahead of 12 other contenders in the November general election and placed so well as to force the Dec. 14 run-off. "We appreciate that incumbent Mayor Brown has been a tremendously fair-minded leader advancing the cause of non-discrimination, and we have a great deal of respect for him and his supporters. But our organization's mission to elect great openly gay and lesbian public servants is clear, even when they are not running against anti-gay extremists. "We must open up the political process wherever we can until sexual orientation is no longer a barrier to public service. Tom Ammiano has boldly helped our community move in that direction, and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his pioneering efforts." |
