Thursday, September 11, 2008

Vote No On Proposition 102 News Update

CAP Will Blatantly Lie To Win

September 11th, 2008

Last week, the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), the people responsible for the so-called “Marriage Amendment” Prop 102, began their public campaign to push Arizona further along their narrow agenda.

As you know, voters made their views known on the issue of marriage two years ago by defeating the so-called “Protect Marriage Amendment.” The only reason we’re seeing this on the ballot again is because a few Phoenix politicians gave in to the pressures of CAP. Well, we believe that a few legislators nor CAP should not be able to overturn the voters on this issue.

CAP will stop at nothing to win, including deliberately misleading Arizonans whenever and wherever they can. Their latest fundraising appeal provides a fresh example of the kind of distortions we can expect from their campaign. In their latest plea for money, CAP’s president Cathi Herrod wrote:

“Radical homosexual groups from Arizona as well as California, Colorado, and Washington, DC are launching one of their most aggressive and well-funded campaigns ever right here in Arizona…Their ‘early money, early victory’ strategy is essentially an attempt to buy the election before it even gets started.”

CAP would have you believe that sinister out-of-state gay-rights groups are lining up to throw money at Arizona.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, CAP set up a political action committee known as “Yes for Marriage” to promote Prop 102 and, as of August 13, they had raised about $3 million - including $20,000 from Colorado Springs-based Focus On the Family and an additional $14,000 from CAP’s own coffers.

This amount of money may sound discouraging, but we’re not worried. We are absolutely convinced that we can defeat Prop 102.

But we cannot do it without your help. That is why we are asking you to give an emergency donation today. As a volunteer-led effort, every dollar you give goes directly to defeating Prop 102. A donation of $50 will provide 500 info cards to be distributed to likely voters. Can you spare that much?

Arizonans know that there are more important issues to work on: a declining economy, rising home foreclosures, higher energy prices, health care and an educational system that is not meeting the needs of the future generation.

We have an exciting campaign plan, and we have a committed group of grassroots volunteers who are energized to repeat history. We have the backing of prominent members of the community, including University of Arizona President Emeritus Dr. Peter Likins, Tucson First Lady Beth Walkup, and an entire coalition of pastors and faith leaders.

And most importantly, we have the citizens of Arizona who have already said NO to political agendas foisted on us by special interest groups or a few politicians who think they know better than Arizona voters what’s best for the state.

The stakes are high. Please give generously today.

More Community Partners = Defeat, Again

September 11th, 2008

Why Two Campaigns?

There are many LGBTQ and ally groups that are part of the coalition against Proposition 102, including Wingspan, Equality Arizona, the Tucson GLBT Chamber of Commerce, Southern Arizona’s Gender Alliance (SAGA), Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats, the YWCA, and the list is growing every day.

In addition, there is a large interfaith coalition that is an integral part of No on Prop 102. The denominations represented in this group include Disciples of Christ, Ecumenical Catholic, Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Jewish, Liberal Catholic, Presbyterian, Quaker, United Church of Christ, United Methodist and Unitarian Universalist.

So, you may be asking yourself, what is the difference between No on Prop 102 and Arizona Together Opposed to Prop 102? The nutshell answer is that Arizona Together is focusing on large media buys statewide and we’re focusing on smaller media buys, grassroots and Southern Arizona. There will be some resources shared around the state and we are coordinating our campaigns, so donating to either one or both will help defeat Prop 102!

This strategy worked in 2006: Pima County delivered the 40,000 extra votes that we needed to defeat Prop 107 and we have not doubt we’ll do it again to defeat Prop 102!


ASU WebDevil: Ballot Measure Proves Divisive

September 10th, 2008

From Arizona State University’s online campus paper:

A ballot measure Arizona voters will decide this November has proved polarizing. If the measure passes, marriage would be defined in the Arizona Constitution as a union between a man and a woman.

A citizen initiative that similarly aimed to outlaw same-sex marriage in the state constitution — but also could have prevented the state from offering domestic-partner benefits to unmarried same-sex or opposite-sex couples — was narrowly defeated in 2006.

Proponents of this election’s Proposition 102 say it is about letting the people speak for themselves. Opponents call it prejudice.

“We don’t believe that discrimination of any sort should be written into the constitution. It is a waste of Arizona voters’ time and money,” said Becky Corran, co-chair for the organization No on Prop. 102. “Prop. 102 is a mean-spirited effort to mobilize the conservative vote. Why do this when a law already exists?”

Read the rest of the article here.

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