Ok, so we'd been a tad political as of late. But for this installment, we are leaving New York City - well, actually New York State for that matter - to focus on a tidbit related to New Jersey's gubernatorial race.
Today, the New Jersey Star-Ledger takes a look at how both the Republican candidate, Doug Forrester, and the Democratic contender, Jon Corzine, are making efforts to appeal for the Latino vote in New Jersey.
The article says that while Corzine has appointed Latino leaders to some high-ranking campaign positions (US Representative Robert Mendez is the co-chair of Corzine's campaign), Forrester aknowledges that he has no high-ranking Latinos on his campaign staff and has had to import high-profile out-of state Republican Hispanic politicians to help him campaign.
So, accoding to the article, on Monday there was Florida Senator Mel Martinez, walking down "Bergenline Avenue in Union City with Forrester, acting as his unofficial translator [while] Forrester's staff handed out fliers in Spanish that, translated, read Strong family values, and pictured him with his wife and three children."
Hm, let's look back at some excerpts from a Miami Herald article published back on April 8th on Mel Martinez and his strong family values ("Schiavo memo trips rookie senator" by Lesley Clark):
The [Folorida Senate] campaign ads were bitterly divisive, even by the standards of a bare-knuckle primary, accusing the opponent of then Republican senatorial hopeful Mel Martinez of playing to the radical homosexual lobby.
Martinez blamed the ads on young Turks in his campaign and apologized to his GOP rival. Weeks later Martinez found himself again blaming a staff member after a press release from his campaign likened U.S. immigration agents to armed thugs for seizing Elián González from his Miami home in 2000.
Now, for the third time, Martinez finds himself under fire -- and blaming an aide for the conflagration. This time, Martinez said he has accepted the resignation of a staff member in his Senate office for penning the now-infamous political memo that suggested Republicans in Washington could use the plight of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bash Democrats, singling out Martinez's fellow Florida senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.
Trying to use the Schiavo family plight for political advantage, attacking a rival Republican as playing to the 'radical homosexual lobby,' and keeping a son from his Cuban father to get the conservative Cuban vote in Florida. Ah! Those kind of family values! I guess we now know what kind of help Forrester is bringing in to his NJ campaign.
And more on Mel Martinez anti-gay Senate campaing from a another Miami Herald article published on July 12, 2004 ("Senate candidate fights gay marriage" by Marc Caputo):
Mel Martinez stood near the altar Sunday evening and promised to fight the ''homosexual agenda,'' thereby positioning his U.S. Senate campaign on the right wing of what the faithful are calling the culture wars.
It is here, in places like the First Baptist Church of Orlando, that the religious right is drawing inspiration from preachers and politicians like Martinez, who promises to support the president's call for an unprecedented constitutional amendment seeking to define marriage only as the union of a man and a woman.
Though Martinez's position largely reflects the sentiment of the other Republican Senate candidates who are also campaigning under the steeple, his in-person campaign stop made the most of a captive audience of about 200 assembled to watch a political-religious sermon simulcast from a Tennessee church to houses of worship and radio stations across the nation.
Headlining the show were two of the biggest Christian crusaders for the amendment: James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Charles Colson, who established Prison Fellowship Ministries after serving time for his role in Watergate. They warned the thousands who presumably tuned in that, if left unchecked, activist judges and politicians would continue the culture war against Christianity. They predicted preachers would eventually be banned from even criticizing gays and that gay role playing would be taught in schools.
Enough said.
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