Changing sides can cost a politician

Pity the politicians who try to play around on both sides of a controversial issue. Even before they begin equivocating, they know it isn’t possible to satisfy everybody, but in their desperate dash for votes, the temptation to fudge becomes too great. They take a small step away from their previous stand, then another. Before long they’re espousing patchwork positions nobody can accept.

David Emery made that mistake back in 1990. Emery, running for Congress in the 1st District, simultaneously juggled so many conflicting stands on abortion, he began to resemble a circus sideshow act. By the time he was through evolving and revolving, both pro-choicers and pro-lifers were anti-Emery, and he lost by a landslide to Tom Andrews. Emery’s self-destruction should have been warning enough to those whose personal supply of intestinal fortitude is insufficient to prevent chronic waffling. But the lure of being all things to all people may be so overpowering that nothing can save some candidates from themselves.

The latest victim is GOP 1st Congressional District hopeful Kevin Keogh. Keogh, in his former role as state party chairman, was in favor of gay rights legislation. He claimed to have urged Gov. John McKernan to sign the gay rights bill that passed the Legislature last year (Jock vetoed it). At last month’s Republican State Convention, Keogh distributed a Central Maine Morning Sentinel column by Tom Hanrahan which said Keogh “plans to exploit” Democratic front-runner Dennis Dutremble’s flip-flops on abortion and gay rights.

But before Keogh can take on Dutremble, he has to prevail in a tight Republican primary race, and supporting civil rights for gay men and lesbians isn’t winning him votes among the GOP faithful. The other candidates, Jim Longley Jr., Charlie Summers and Ted Rand, oppose the measure, and Keogh now appears to be trying to blur the distinctions between his position and theirs.

“I’m very much against discrimination,” he says. “But I think local control is the issue. I’m for local control.”

What’s that mean?

“They voted on the issue in Portland. That’s a fair way.”

You no longer think a statewide law is needed?

“I don’t see that much discrimination. I honestly don’t know one person who would fire somebody because they were gay.”

Would you support a local gay rights ordinance in your town?

“I don’t know if I’d vote for a local ordinance in Camden. I’d look at it, but how I’d vote would be private.”

Keogh now appears to hold essentially the same position as former Christian Civic League director Jasper Wyman, the state’s most vocal gay rights opponent. Neither believes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a problem. Both support using local referenda to repeal any ordinances that are enacted by town or city councils. The only difference is Wyman has never pretended to be anything but against gay rights, and Keogh insists he’s still in favor.

IF NOT THIS YEAR, THEN NEXT YEAR

Every Maine citizen may have to decide how they’ll vote on gay rights in 1995. Concerned Maine Families is still hoping to get enough signatures to put a measure outlawing local and state civil rights laws on the ballot next year. Even if CMF falls short, a referendum remains a strong possibility. That’s because a gay rights bill will be introduced in the Legislature in January. If it passes and is signed into law by the new governor, the religious right will still have 90 days after legislative adjournment to collect signatures to stop it from taking effect and put it out to a vote. Leaders of the pro-gay rights group Equal Protection Maine are predicting the most expensive referendum campaign in the state’s history, with each side spending as much as $2 million.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

There’s something uncomfortably familiar about Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Hollis Greenlaw’s campaign signs. The blue, white and red posters feature the same color, typeface and design as those used for years by Gov. McKernan. It’s no coincidence, according to sources in the Greenlaw machine. The signs are intended to remind voters of McKernan.

There’s nothing unusual about lesser-known candidates copying successful politicians. One of Greenlaw’s primary opponents, Rick Bennett, has posters and stickers that resemble those used by Sen. Bill Cohen. But Cohen is one of the state’s most respected elected officials, while McKernan has all the voter appeal of dry rot.

Greenlaw has spent the last several years working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., returning to Maine only in March. “The last time he was in the state,” theorizes one GOP wit, “McKernan was popular.”

Al Diamon is a television commentator, free-lance writer and weekly NEWS columnist.