By Joe Harris
The first openly gay Republican presidential candidate announced last week that he would end his campaign for the nation’s highest office. Fred Karger, a former actor and political consultant, called his twoand- a-half year run for the White House “the experience of a lifetime.”
“I am officially ending my historic campaign today, June 29, 2012. It’s been one hell of a ride, and I want to thank the thousands of people across this country that volunteered, contributed, opened their homes, came to our events and cheered me on,” said Karger, 62. “Every one of you kept me going.”
Karger worked on nine presidential campaigns, including those of President Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Gerald Ford. At the April 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference (SRLC) in New Orleans— which was attended by GOP stalwarts, including Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum— Karger declared himself the “Anti- Romney” candidate, and later said that he would “run a campaign specifically designed to throw a wrench into [Mitt] Romney’s run” for president.
The former bit-part actor—who performed in such memorable fare as “Airport: 1975,” and the pilot episode of “Horshack,” an ill-fated 1970s spinoff of “Welcome Back, Kotter”—claimed that he was elbowed out of televised Republican presidential debates, and was denied a booth at last year’s conservative C-PAC conference.
Earlier this year, when Washington State lawmakers legalized marriage equality, the impassioned speech in favor of the law by state Rep. Maureen Walsh (R-Walla Walla) went viral. The 51 year old Republican House member now faces a primary challenge from a member of her own party, but she has not been left to wander alone in the political wilderness, with campaign cash flowing into her coffers from marriage equality supporters across the country.
During the debate this year on the same-sex marriage legislation, Walsh delivered an emotional, tear-filled speech, in which she told lawmakers about the death of her husband, and the loving bond they had shared. “How could I deny the right to have that incredible bond with another individual in life?” she asked. “To me it seems almost cruel.”
Walsh’s support helped gain passage of the law— which has been challenged by antigay opponents— and also earned for her the support of wealthy gay political donors, who have sent much-needed campaign donations in support of her re-election.That money comes none-too-soon, as a national anti-gay-marriage group is targeting Republican lawmakers who vote for same sex marriage.
The three-term lawmaker first appeared on LGBT donors’ gay-dar in 2010, after she earned a censure from the Franklin County (Washington) Republican Party for her support of domestic partnerships for gay Washingtonians. During her reelection bid that year, she nabbed large donations from prominent LGBT rights supporters, including Colorado software mogul Tim Gill, the founder of the Gill Action Fund, which supports gay-friendly lawmakers.