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Frazzini: Gordon Smith is No Ted Kennedy

Basic Rights Oregon Executive Director Jeana Frazzini said today that a new campaign ad from U.S. Senate Candidate Gordon Smith doesn’t tell the whole truth about Smith’s record on protecting gay Americans from harm.

The ad, similar in style to others run by the campaign that seek to link the Republican Smith to popular Democrats, quotes Senator Ted Kennedy on civil rights and attempts to paint Smith as an ally to gay Oregonians. But Frazzini said Smith is hiding in Kennedy’s shadow.

“Senator Ted Kennedy has spent his career working to ensure equality under the law for
all Americans,” Frazzini said. “But Gordon Smith flip-flops on the issues, trotting out his support only when his campaign is in trouble and he thinks it will score him a few extra votes in Portland and Eugene. Gordon Smith is no Ted Kennedy.”

“There is only one thing that we can count on from Gordon Smith: every election, he will roll out the same tired old political ads in Portland in an effort to look like a moderate, Frazzini said. “But the fact is that after more than a decade of Senator Smith, we still have no federal hate crimes law. We still have no federal nondiscrimination law. And Gordon Smith supports a federal law that denies committed gay couples critical legal protections, even if they register for a domestic partnership in Oregon.”

“Worst of all,” Frazzini continued, “Gordon Smith was a poster child for 2004′s Measure 36, a constitutional amendment that made gay Oregonians second class citizens under the law by denying committed couples the security and dignity of marriage. It’s one thing to have a different opinion about marriage.  But Gordon Smith actively led the charge in a hateful campaign that put real Oregonians in harm’s way by denying them basic human rights. I cannot emphasize this enough: Gordon Smith is not a friend to this community.”