In the race for mayor of Tempe, Arizona, Victory Fund candidate Neil Giuliano held off a persistent gay- baiting campaign and won reelection with 56 percent of the vote. Victory Fund Executive Director Brian Bond says that the openly gay Republican mayor's victory "proves that mean-spirited tactics against openly gay and lesbian candidates will ultimately fail because a clear majority of fair-minded citizens believe that good government, provided by leaders regardless of their sexual orientation, should be rewarded."

Malia, a twenty-seven year resident of the Boston district she will represent, ran a successful campaign focusing on affordable housing, expanded health care for children and seniors and improved public safety for all. Giuliano, the youngest mayor in Tempe's history, will begin his third term and continue his energetic, open and inclusive style of leadership.

In separate races for the Multnomah County Board in Oregon, Victory Fund candidates Barbara Willer and George Eighmey both advanced to the May 19 run-off election. Willer ran a very close second in a field of four candidates; Eighmey also ran second among three candidates. "Both Barbara and George have run incredible campaigns but they will continue to need our support as they fight for their rightful place at the table," says Bond.

In the race for Wilton Manors, Florida, City Council, openly gay candidate Gary Resnick will join John Fiore, a former Victory Fund candidate, on the council. Resnick won one of two open city-wide seats against six opponents.

HRC Hails Victory Over Extremist Gary Bauer's Family Research Council

Lois Capps' victory in last Tuesday's California House race was a clear repudiation of the tactics of the Family Research Council and its executive director, Gary Bauer, the Human Rights Campaign announced.

"Voters resoundingly rejected Gary Bauer's attempts to smear Lois Capps with $200,000 worth of misleading television ads," said Winnie Stachelberg, HRC's political director. "Once again, the people demonstrated their distaste the type of extremist politics practiced by the Family Research Council."

Capps, the widow of Democratic Rep. Walter Capps, defeated GOP state Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro in a special election. Lois Capps will serve the unexpired 10 months of her husband, who died of a heart attack October 28.

The conservative Family Research Council, which is based in Washington, ran $200,000 of TV ads in the Santa Barbara, Calif., district in an effort to portray Lois Capps as favoring a type of late-term abortion that it calls "partial-birth abortion."

The Human Rights Campaign's political action committee contributed $10,000 to the Capps' campaign, the maximum permitted by law. HRC also sent several staffers to California to work with Capps' campaign. The organization did not pay for any issue advertising.

A former school nurse, Capps has been an outspoken advocate for inclusive sex education and AIDS prevention programs. She has also served on a Ryan White Advisory Committee in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has pledged to cosponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination as a member of Congress.

Walter Capps was elected to Congress in 1996, with maximum HRC financial support. He was an ENDA cosponsor and a strong supporter of HRC's legislative agenda. In 1994, he lost an open seat race to conservative Republican Andrea Seastrand. Two years later, he defeated her with 48 percent of the vote. The district, which is generally fiscally conservative and socially moderate, lies on the coast of California and includes communities of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.