Petrelis Files

HRC PAC: Who Gets Gay Money This Election?

The Washington Blade interviewed the Human Rights Campaign's executive director Joe Solmonese recently, on the one-year anniversary of being hired to head the gay group, and he was asked about HRC's political action committee:

Q: Anything new with the HRC PAC? Will it continue with its usual endorsements?

Solmonese: We're going to really focus in a significant way on going above and beyond a small set of races that we think are critically important, particularly in the Senate. We’re going to place a lot of emphasis on the Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Senate races beyond just PAC support and financial contributions, really mobilizing our membership in a much more expansive way than we have in the past.

Q: There's been criticism in the past that HRC is a thinly disguised arm of the DNC. What do you have to say about that?

Solmonese: HRC is a bipartisan organization that advocates for our community that has done more for and given more to Republicans than anybody else, than any other GLBT group. I wonder if we've even given more than Log Cabin, although I think that's unfair given the size of our budget [...]

In looking over Federal Election Commission records for the HRC PAC, I see that the majority of their donations this election cycle, like all other cycles, goes to Democrats.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, given that in the current political climate Democrats are generally better on gay issues than Republicans, but I wonder if all the Democrats who receive money from the HRC PAC have good voting records on gay and HIV issues.

I tried to find up-to-date Congressional ratings by HRC on these issues, but their most current scorecard is from 2004, when Cheryl Jacques was head of the group, and includes ratings for presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry. Can't HRC assign a staffer or two to revise their scorecard, and regularly update it throughout the year?

Sure do wish there were an easy way to determine if all candidates receiving HRC PAC donations have good records on HIV and gay matters.