Sammon To Leave Log Cabin

Patrick Sammon, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, has announced his resignation.

Sammon said in a statement released Thursday that he would step down at the end of January. Sammon, a former television news reporter, became president of Log Cabin in December 2006. “After five years at this organization and more than two years heading Log Cabin, I am ready to tackle new challenges,” he said. “I’ll be doing documentary filmmaking, which is what I did before joining Log Cabin’s staff.”

Sammon joined the staff of Liberty Education Forum, the Log Cabin educational arm, in January 2004. He became interim head of Log Cabin in September 2006, following the departure of Patrick Guerriero.

Sammon’s departure comes following two national elections that battered Republicans, ousting many of the party’s more moderate members from Congress. The few new GOP members of Congress have not supported gay issues. All 14 freshmen House Republicans ranked in this year’s Human Rights Campaign Congressional Scorecard received zero scores. Three freshmen Senate Republicans also received zero scores; freshmen Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee scored 20 of 100.

Despite the setbacks, the Log Cabin statement announcing Sammon’s departure notes several accomplishments. It says that under Sammon’s leadership, Log Cabin “built close ties with Sen. John McCain’s campaign” and “stood up to Gov. Mitt Romney’s use of gay and lesbian families as a wedge issue” during the presidential primaries. It also notes that Log Cabin “helped secure” 35 Republican votes on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which proved essential to passing the bill through the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Sammon, who informed the Log Cabin board earlier this year that he would step down after the November elections, said he’s proud of the progress the organization has made.

The LCR is conducting a "national search" for Sammon's replacement. His predecessor, Patrick Guerriero, was the campaign director for No On 8.

UPDATE: It should be noted that Patrick Guerriero was brought in to head the No On 8 campaign in the final three weeks, once it became clear that our side was losing. Some are crediting Guerriero with the last minute surge in donations and the large number of celebrity endorsements that flooded in at the end. Besides working on Prop 8, Guerriero is the executive director for the Gill Action Fund, a progressive political advocacy organization founded by gay philantrophist Tim Gill.

(Via - Washington Blade)