NOM's Candidate Loses In Iowa

Anti-gay candidate Stephen Burgmeirer, who was backed by NOM to the tune of $86,000 in TV and radio ads, lost in yesterday's Iowa House special election.

Democrat Curt Hanson defeated Republican Stephen Burgmeier by 107 votes tonight in a special election for Iowa House District 90, according to unofficial results from the Iowa secretary of state. Hanson tallied 48.9 percent of the votes to Burgmeier's 47.5 percent, allowing Democrats to retain their 56-44 majority in the Iowa House. The district stretches into three counties. Hanson won by more than 600 votes in Jefferson County, but Burgmeier won by more than 500 votes in Van Buren County. The race was a nail-biter and at one point, only two votes separated the candidates at 9:30 p.m. after most results came in from those two counties. It all came down to Wapello County, where results trickled in and Burgmeier won by just four votes, not enough to overcome the margin from the other two counties. The final, unofficial vote that came in just after 10 p.m. was 3,932 to 3,825. Hanson replaces Rep. John Whitaker, D-Hillsboro, who resigned to serve as state executive director of the USDA's Farm Service Agency.

107 votes. Whew.

Iowa: NOM's Ad For Stephen Burgmeier

Bookended with commentary from One Iowa....

NOM Backs Iowa Candidate Seeking To Overturn Marriage Equality

NOM has made an $86K radio and television buy on behalf of Iowa House candidate Stephen Burgmeier, who is working to overturn marriage equality. On Top Magazine reports:

Anti-gay marriage groups are ratcheting up their efforts to influence the Iowa Legislature in an effort to repeal gay marriage in the state. The latest evidence of such a plan can be gleaned in their backing of the candidacy of Stephen Burgmeier, a conservative Republican running for the Iowa House in a special election to be held in September. Burgmeier is facing Democrat Curt Hanson in the race to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Representative John Whitaker was tapped to serve as the Iowa director of the Farm Service Agency. The race is the first since the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage on April 3. At least three anti-gay marriage groups are now behind Burgmeier: Everyday America, the Iowa Family Policy Center, and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). On Friday, The Iowa Independent reported that NOM was backing Burgmeier with an $86,080 ad buy.

Five other GOP candidates are running for Iowa governor on the platform of overturning same-sex marriage. However Iowa law states that any constitutional ban must first be approved by the legislature before a public vote can occur. That means that anti-gay groups must first reverse the Democratic majority in Iowa's legislature, hence NOM's donation to Burgmeier.