just out ▼ aprii 5. 1906 ▼ 21
P O L IT IC S : T H E
Much ado about a do
“[Oregon state Rep.] Lisa Naito called and left
a message for Gail, asking, ‘Is that you?’ W e’ve
heard a lot of that lately,” admits Carter Headrick,
campaign manager for Gail Shibley, an openly
lesbian candidate who is running for the Portland
City Council.
Anyone who has followed Shibley’s career
since she was first appointed to the Oregon House
in 1991 knows what we’re talking about: A
headshot of the progressive and pragmatic public
servant that appears in her latest campaign litera-
parties and public speeches I specifically say that
40 percent of Portland’s families are not like [my
wife and I]—that families include grandparents
and single mothers and gay couples,” he says.
“I’ve even said that to the Kiwanis Club.”
According to KNRK’s Taylor, meanwhile,
Francesconi did comment to him during a private
conversation that Shibley “was a single-issue
candidate dealing mostly with civil rights.”
Taylor says, “I don’t know how he meant the
comment [and] l don’t think it was a comment he
meant to make openly and publicly.”
As for the alleged poll question, Francesconi
The faces o f Gail Shibley
ture looks more than a tad different than the
Shibley of days past.
The hairstyle has changed. The makeup is
more pronounced. The eyebrows appear plucked
and shaped.
“I don’t know if I’d say she’s more femmey,”
says Headrick, when asked about Shibley’s ap­
parent makeover, “but looks do matter.”
“Gail had her hair done for that photo and I
think that made her forehead stand out differ­
ently,” adds Headrick, who “swears” he doesn’t
“advise” Shibley on what to wear or how to apply
her mascara.
“I think it’s a positive attribute for Gail to look
good. When I told her people’s response [to her
current look] may have to do with the fact that she
now looks so great, well let’s just say that she said
a few things that you probably couldn’t print,”
Headrick says kiddingly.
campaign manager Phil Donovan says his camp
hasn’t used any language that wasn’t explicitly
used in Shibley’s own campaign literature. A
“Gail Shibley for City Council” campaign flyer
does in fact tout Shibley as the “first openly
lesbian member of the Oregon Legislature.”
“We didn’t ask whether that would change a
person’s vote,” says Donovan. “We just used her
[descriptive] of herself in her own candidate com­
parisons.”
He adds, “There was some concern about
whether we should use it, but the fact is she used
it in her own literature.”
When asked whether the Francesconi cam­
paign would have mentioned Shibley’s sexuality
if she hadn’t, Donovan replies: “I don’t know.
Probably not.”
Francesconi, meanwhile, says he “let the po­
litical people handle the poll.”
I don’t think I said that...
He’s not the man we
used to know
On a more serious note, the Shibley campaign
is making noises that another candidate in the City
Council race, Portland attorney Jim Francesconi,
is using “veiled” and “coded” tactics that may be
designed to chum up voters’ fears about Shibley’s
sexual orientation.
Headrick says he has heard that the Francesconi
camp did a poll which asked respondents: “If you
knew one of the candidates was a lesbian, would
that change your vote?”
Headrick also says Rick Taylor, who hosts an
early morning program on KNRK, an FM radio
station geared toward the alternative music crowd,
told Shibley that Francesconi remarked during an
earlier private discussion that Shibley was a “les­
bian who only dealt with gay issues in Salem.”
“I don’t think I ever said Gail was a single­
issue legislator,” counters Francesconi, who says
he does not want to make anyone’s sexual orien­
tation an issue.
“I went to [prominent gay rights advocate and
Democratic politico] Terry Bean at the beginning
of this campaign to get advice about how to make
sure this kind of thing didn’t happen,” says
Francesconi, adding that human rights activist
Kathleen Saadat and former Portland Police Chief
Tom Potter, a longtime friend of the sexual mi­
norities community, have thrown their support
behind him.
“[Bean] said if I talk about ‘family’ that could
be viewed as a code word, so in all of my house
“Either Tom Mason is schizophrenic or he’s
totally dishonest. Who knows what’s going on
with him?” blurts Portland attorney Lisa Max field,
co-chair of Right to Privacy, Oregon’s largest
lesbian, gay and bisexual rights organization.
Trying to establish a psychological low-down
on Mason, a Portland Democrat who is running
for the Oregon Senate District 6 seat (which
covers portions of Multnomah County), may prove
fruitless for Maxfield. Nonetheless, she says she
is oddly fascinated—and grossly disappointed—
by what she views as Mason’s about-face on gay,
lesbian and reproductive rights issues.
You may recall that Mason served eight terms
in the Oregon House before losing his seat in 1994
when opponent Anitra Rasmussen soundly de­
feated him in the primary.
Mason resurfaced when he jumped into the
current race for state Sen. Dick Springer’s (D-
Portland) seat after Springer announced he would
not seek re-election. Mason, who very likely has
the best name recognition in the race, faces a few
opponents in the May 2 1 primary, including Frank
Dixon, an openly gay candidate who is pro-choice
and supportive of gay and lesbian rights.
According to Maxfield, two years ago Mason
did “extremely well” on an RTP questionnaire
that the group uses to assess candidates and sub­
sequently make endorsements.
S P IN
W
E ’R E
IN
“He was pro-choice. He said he would de­
nounce the [Oregon Citizens Alliance’s] anti-gay
initiatives. He said that he would sponsor an
omnibus civil rights bill. He said gay people
should have the same rights to become foster
parents or adopt, and to have the same custodial
rights as heterosexuals. He said he supported
legal marriage for same-gender couples,” she
says.
“When we interviewed him in 1996, he said he
didn’t know whether he would introduce an om­
nibus civil rights bill. He said he was undecided
about whether he would speak out against the
OCA’s anti-gay initiatives, saying he would have
to first ‘see what they looked like. ’ He said he was
now adamantly opposed to gay people having the
same foster parenting and child custody rights [as
heterosexuals]. He said he would support an OCA
initiative that [restricted] parenting and child cus­
tody rights for gays. And he said he was totally
opposed to same-sex marriage. How’s that for a
total reversal?” says Maxfield.
This isn’t the first time Mason has been ac­
cused of doing a major flip-flop on issues that
many believe involve a person’s fundamental
values. In 1994, for example, Mason, who had
favored abortion rights, shocked many when he
sought the endorsement of Oregon Right to Life
during the last week of the campaign.
“He switched his position three days before
the [primary] election,” says RTP Executive Di­
rector Barry Pack, adding that abortion rights
groups responded by “pulling out all the stops” to
defeat Mason. RTP, meanwhile, endorsed
Rasmussen in the primary.
“I do think the OCA has been demonized,”
Mason tells Just Out. “And I have changed my
son, adding he supports health coverage for do­
mestic partners and believes a woman should
have the right to choose an abortion in the first
trimester. “It gets more complicated in the second
trimester and definitely should not be allowed in
the third trimester,” he says.
Maxfield says she fears that voters in District
6, which is largely Democratic and thought to be
quite liberal, will assume Mason “is the person he
used to be, rather than this new more conservative
model.”
‘T hey’re going to think, ‘Hey 1 voted for him
last time. He’s good on issues.’ Many won’t know
how dramatically things have changed,” she says.
From Mason to Mabon
Recent media accounts have predicted the
demise of the reign of Lon Mabon and his Oregon
Citizens Alliance. They point to the group’s dwin­
dling membership and lackluster fund raising,
and to the discontent aimed at Mabon— and his
power-hungry antics—by a handful of ultracon­
servative Republicans who previously aligned
themselves with the OCA.
As you well know by now, Mabon has an­
nounced his bid for the U.S. Senate seat being
vacated by Sen. Mark Hatfield. He expressed his
intentions after GOP hopeful Gordon Smith—
who gladly accepted the OCA’s endorsement just
a few months ago when he made an unsuccessful
U.S. Senate run against Democrat Ron Wyden—
said he would not take the OCA’s endorsement
this time around.
Some claim Mabon is making his last stand—
on very wobbly legs—but Bill Lunch, a political
science professor at Oregon State University,
warns it ain’t over till it’s over.
“I am predicting Mabon will do better in the
Republican
primary than expected,” says Lunch,
This isn ’t the first time
a longtime observer of Oregon politics. “I think he
Mason has been accused of
will get as much as a third of the vote, or at least
a quarter, and he may raise $ 150,000 through that
doing a major flip-flop on
Senate primary campaign—that’s enough to keep
him and the OCA in business, because it covers
issues that many believe
the rent and the salaries.”
involve a person \s
Lunch also says as Mabon is personally cam­
paigning
for office, he will be able to collect
fundamental values
signatures for the anti-abortion-rights and anti-
In 1994, for example,
gay-rights initiatives the OCA is attempting to
place on the November ballot.
Mason, who had favored
Media accounts indicate the group is having
great difficulty gathering signatures.
abortion rights,
“Mabon’s bid for the Senate could be an
shocked many when he
indicator that he’s unsure whether they’ll be able
to
get the signatures,” says Lunch. “Of course, he
sought the endorsement of
won’t say that publicly and we won’t really know
Oregon Right to Life
until the deadline.”
Julie Davis, executive director of Basic Rights
during the last week
Oregon, the successor organization to the No on
13 campaign, also expects Mabon “will do better
of the campaign.
than people think he will.”
“I think he’ll get 15 percent and maybe as high
as 25 percent of [GOP primary] vote,” she says.
position on same-sex marriage. I guess you could
"There are a lot of people who support Lon’s
say that I’m getting more conservative when it
stance on this issue.”
comes to that.”
According to Davis, all the talk of the OCA’s
So why exactly does Mason believe that same-
downfall has hampered her group’s fund-raising
gender couples should be denied the right to
efforts, as well.
legally marry?
“When we contact people, the first thing out of
“We’re seeing these single parents raising
these boys who are getting into all sorts of trouble.
their mouths is: ‘Well, the OCA is dead.’ So it
Boys need a father figure in the home to keep them
makes it tough,” she says. “The fact is, eight in 10
Oregonians still think that gays and lesbians are
out of trouble,” he says.
protected by law from being fired or losing our
So marriage should only be available to het­
homes or our children. There’s still a great deal of
erosexual couples who vow to produce children?
education that needs to occur, with or without the
What happens to straight couples who don’t
want— or can’t have— children? What about
OCA in the picture.”
couples who have daughters, or what about a gay
She adds: “[The sexual minorities commu­
male couple who have a son— using Mason’s
nity] has been saying for the past few years how
logic, isn’t that the best scenario imaginable?
terrible it is that we have to be on the defensive
“That’s ridiculous,” says Mason, who is di- , and use all of our resources to fight initiatives.
vorced and has a 12-year-old daughter.
Perhaps this will be an opportunity where we can
And how will denying equal access to legal
actually work proactively, by doing positive things,
marriage for same-gender couples lower the cri me
but that too takes support. We hope people are
rate?
with us on that.”
“Listen, I believe that all these things are
Reporting by Inga Sorensen
connected, and I think daddies count,” says Ma­
.