Gettin' dirty

Before Indiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels could sit down for a quiet meeting with members of Indiana's gay and lesbian communities, news of the closed event was leaked to the state's conservative Republicans, according to www.Indystar.com. \nAn e-mail sent to conservative Republicans across the state invited them to join "... candidate for governor, Mitch Daniels, in a meeting he has called to meet with leaders of Indiana's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community". \nDaniels' campaign members denied authoring the invitation and accused state Democrats of sending the e-mail in attempts to alienate the Republican candidate's major constituents. \nIn the end, a search through the Democratic Party's computer system uncovered no dirt. But why does Daniels care anyway?\nDaniels promotes an "every Hoosier is welcome" campaign, but by the way he's handled the latest situation, he'll only play happy host when nobody's watching.\nFor the past year, he's been hosting closed meetings with voters traditionally seen as Democratic loyalists, such as blacks and union workers. But when it came to reaching out to gay and lesbian voters, not only did Daniels keep the meeting closed, he barred reporters. In fact, the meeting didn't even make it into Daniels' public campaign schedule.\nIt might be safe to say Daniels probably kept the meetings low-key because he didn't want to upset his conservative constituents like Micah Clark, who said he was tempted to ask the candidate "... why are you meeting with such a small minority that is going to vote Democratic at the risk of alienating a large portion of your base?"\nWe think the answer is simple.\nRepublican Indiana state representative candidate Brian Jessen said, "They are people, too. They vote, and we need to listen to the opinions of everyone -- even if we disagree with them."\nAnd he's right.\nShould Daniels win the gubernatorial race, he'll preside over all of Indiana, not just conservative Protestants or people who disagree with legalizing gay rights. Just as blacks and union workers vote, gays and lesbians vote, too. But with the way the governor hopeful reacted to the situation, it would be no surprise if any hope of creating bonds with the gay and lesbian community might be crushed.\nAnd if that's the case, then Daniels has taken twice the hit -- he's lost potential voters and loyal conservative Republicans both.\nDaniels engaged himself in a game of political hot potato, and it turns out the potato is the gay and lesbian community. When the unknown e-mail author clicked "send" in the compose mail browser, they tossed the potato to Daniels. Then when Daniels pointed the finger at the Democratic Party, he tossed the potato off to them. And when no evidence was found, the Democrats tossed it back.\nAnd while the politicians toss around the blame, everybody's getting burned but the person or group that's trying to make this race a dirty one. With so much focus on Daniels' stance regarding gays and lesbians, voters are being encouraged to look at this race as single-issue election. Conservative Republicans are being indirectly encouraged to distance themselves from voters that don't appeal to their constituents. And the gay and lesbian community has been made the pawn in a game of dirty politics.