Former Virginia Partisans’ President Questions Equality Virginia’s Strange Endorsements (and NON-Endorsements)

Former Virginia Partisans Gay & Lesbian Democratic Club President Josh Israel forwarded me the latest endorsements (and non-endorsements) by Equality Virginia. Needless to say, Israel is puzzled – as am I – at many of these. I’ll go through those in a second, but first, here’s what Josh Israel has to say.

I don’t know how they made these determinations, but it sure appears that a bunch of Democrats who responded to their questionnaires indicating the strongest possible support were not given the seal of approval against Republicans with consistent records of opposing LGBT equality at every turn. These questionnaires make it clear once again that when it comes to protecting the equal rights of all Virginians, party matters. The Democrats are becoming more and more vocal in their support — while the Republicans remain a huge obstacle to progress.

Now, on to the  strange endorsements and non-endorsements by Equality Virginia.

• Despite a stellar questionnaire from Democrat Laurie Buchwald, no endorsement
  over Del.Joseph Yost (R), who is occasionally pro-LGBT but didn’t even bother to fill in Equality Virginia’s questionnaire.
• Ditto for Democrat Susan Hippen against Del. Ron Villanueva (R). 
• Perhaps one of the weirdest – no endorsement of Democrat Chuck Hedges, whose questionnaire is superb, over far-far-far-right-wing Republican Dave LaRock?!? Seriously?!?
• Also, no endorsement of Democrat Ellen Arthur (again, super-strong questionnaire) against… Republican Del. Ben Cline (and his miserable LGBT ratings according to Project Vote Smart). 
• Also, no endorsement of Democrat Angela Lynn (again, very strong questionnaire) against Del. Steve Landes (refused to fill out questionnaire; also abysmal Project Vote Smart LGBT ratings); 
• No endorsement of Democrat Jerry Foltz (again, super-strong questionnaire) against right-wingnut Republican Tim Hugo (ZERO ratings, according to Project Vote Smart, on LGBT issues)
• No endorsement of strong-on-LGBT-equality Del. Charniele Herring (D) – although perhaps because she didn’t fill out the questionnaire?
• No endorsement of 100%-rated LGBT champion House Democratic Leader David Toscano (again, the only explanation is that he didn’t fill out the questionnaire)?!?
• Also, there are some weird non-endorsements for State Senate, such as no endorsement of Democrat and super-strong LGBT ally April Moore against anti-gay extremist Mark Obenshain.. Same thing with the non-endorsement of Democrat Wayne Powell (super-strong questionnaire) over right-wing/Tea Party Republican Amanda Chase. As for the non-endorsement of Sen. John Edwards (D), Josh Israel points out that he’s been a “huge LGBT ally for years,” although for whatever reason he didn’t fill out the Equality Virginia questionnaire, so maybe that’s it.