Candidates are courting gay, lesbian vote in Salt Lake City

As the Salt Lake City mayoral race approaches next month's Sept. 11 primary, the campaigns of several candidates are behaving more like they're running races in San Francisco or Boston than Utah.

Campaign reports show candidates are spending money to court gay and lesbian groups, to support Planned Parenthood, to buy liquor and even to entertain campaign staff at the Salt Lake Acting Company's famously irreverent "Saturday's Voyeur."

Maybe the most significant finding emerging from spending data is the candidates' increasing perceived importance of the gay vote in Utah's capital city.

"I've been told by the (Democratic) party and those who know city elections that if you don't do well in the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community, you don't do well" in the election, said mayoral candidate Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County councilwoman.

Wilson held a slight lead among the nine official candidates in a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates.

Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah, a GLBT group, says candidates are courting the gay community more, in part because they know it is highly politically active — making large donations, volunteering and voting. He says gays are politically active because "when issues affect your family and your livelihood, that's when people are most engaged. And we are engaged."

Gay-group money can be significant. Thompson said that the three Utah groups that give the largest donations per candidate are, in order: Bruce Bastian (the gay-activist co-founder of WordPerfect), the Utah Education Association and Equality Utah.

"The fact we trail only the UEA (and gay-activist Bastian) in average gift size shows the influence we have. Candidates know that. And not only do they want that financial support, but also the volunteers we can provide," he said.

With that, Thompson said, all major candidates for mayor and the city council have agreed to candidate endorsement interviews with his group this year. All major mayoral candidates also recently appeared at an forum sponsored by Equality Utah and Planned Parenthood.

This new political reality has led to expenditures on spending reports such as a $2,500 donation by Wilson to Equality Utah; about $400 by candidate Ralph Becker for tickets or ads at gay pride events; and a $125 gay pride parade fee by candidate Keith Christensen.

Ads and stands

Becker, the State House Democratic minority leader from Salt Lake, has a new TV ad that seems to subtly court the gay vote.