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GOP AG candidate Jim McKenna says allegations that he'll strike down DOMA are not true

Tells MassResistance: I didn't talk to homosexual newspaper

We say: Vote for him!

POSTED: Nov 1, 2010

Republican Attorney General Candidate Jim McKenna told Brian Camenker of MassResistance that he never spoke with the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows and that the allegations that he'll work to strike down DOMA aren't true.

McKenna came under fire by social conservatives when he appeared in a front-page article in the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows promising the homosexual community that if elected he will continue Martha Coakley's efforts to attempt to strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
 

Front page of last week's homosexual newspaper Bay Windows, that stirred up furor.

McKenna says he never talked to them.


In the Bay Windows article, McKenna's spokesman Laura Keehner Rigas said that he "would defend the state's DOMA challenge." McKenna himself is quoted as saying: "We've all had the chance to see Massachusetts with same-sex marriage as an option. My opinion is five years later we are the same Massachusetts . . . And I pledge I won't work to change the law when it comes to social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion."

According to inside reports, it caused so much turmoil in the McKenna camp that one of his main staffers quit the campaign over the incident (although he has continued to consult with the campaign on this issue, we're told).

McKenna approached Camenker at the Tea Party rally in Peabody Square this weekend and the two of them discussed the issue. When asked, he flatly told Camenker, "I didn't talk to Bay Windows." He added that he had read the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case filed by Coakley and GLAD, as well as the judge's decision, was not impressed with them, and that the reports that he intends to follow Coakley's path to striking down DOMA are not true. He reiterated to Camenker that he is pro-family and pro-traditional marriage.

AG Candidate Jim McKenna (right) talking with Brian Camenker of MassResistance at Tea Party Rally in Peabody Square this past weekend.

Here's what really happened

Since the Bay Windows story broke, we all sensed that something wasn't right. MassResistance and others continued to investigate this, and talked at some length to McKenna and others close to his campaign.

Our findings on this come from multiple conversations and emails with a number of people, which took several days. McKenna himself has been understandably reluctant to risk causing more disruption in his staff before the election. And some of his staff were also purposefully vague. But luckily, we've gotten to the bottom of it. What we've found out is pretty disturbing.

We've found that McKenna was, in fact, taken completely by surprise by the Bay Windows article. He did not talk to Bay Windows and didn't know anything about it. His RINO staff members - who seem to have more loyalty to the Republican Party establishment than to McKenna himself - apparently made the decision on their own to talk to the homosexual newspaper and to portray McKenna's position the way they did. It appears that they simply made up the quotes attributed to McKenna and emailed them to the homosexual reporter.

The McKenna staffers involved include Laura Keehner Rigas, McKenna's PR person, and possibly also Beth Lindstrom, his campaign strategist. Lindstrom, a longtime Republican apparatchik, was Scott Brown's campaign manager and did extensive work for Mitt Romney. They apparently decided that there was some political advantage to do this, even without McKenna's direct knowledge, and despite the fact that it's contrary to his personal views.

The Republican establishment's strategy of wanting to appear as "moderate" and socially liberal has thus reared its ugly head again, and it backfired. McKenna was going to get no votes whatsoever from the homosexual community. But he risked losing much of his base.

So at this point we say: Definitely vote for McKenna on Tuesday. He seems to be closing on Coakley and needs every vote. And afterwards, let's help him clean house!