Political Notebook: Against all odds, gay Senate candidate a contender

Former San Francisco resident Jim Neal has received little love from the Democratic Party during his come-from-behind bid for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. Party officials refused to back the openly gay Neal, going so far as to recruit another candidate to enter the race.

Even the national gay groups have remained noncommittal, with both the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and the Human Rights Campaign opting not to endorse in the race. Yet Neal remains a contender in the race.

Several polls leading up to the May 6 primary next week showed Neal running neck and neck with challenger Kay Hagan , a state senator. Even a poll released last week, which had Hagan at 38 percent and Neal with 16 percent, bolstered Neal's campaign.

Despite Hagan's being the only candidate running television ads, 34 percent of those polled said they remained undecided. Neal insists his grassroots campaign appears to have connected with the state's Democratic voters, giving him a real shot of winning the May 6 primary next week.

"I am feeling completely revved up. I can't believe that we are within 10 days of the primary in a dead heat with a great majority of voters undecided," Neal told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview Friday, April 25. "This is going to go down to the wire."

The primary winner will face off against Republican incumbent Senator Elizabeth Dole in November. No matter which Democrat it is, they are considered the underdog in the general election race.

Neal still faces several hurdles in order to beat Hagan to the finish line. He has struggled to raise money and has not been able to afford any television advertising, hurting his standing in the polls.

According to local press reports, Neal had $18,000 in cash as of April 16 and had raised $249,000, including a $120,000 personal loan, whereas Hagan had $317,000 in the bank, including a $50,000 personal loan. Meanwhile, Dole has built up her campaign coffers to $3.2 million.

Aside from hauling in more money, Hagan has also won several major endorsements from the state's newspapers, including the Charlotte Observer and the Winston-Salem Journal, though Neal did get the backing of the progressive-leaning Independent Weekly.

Neal and Hagan, along with several other Democratic primary candidates, took part in a televised debate Tuesday, April 29 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Hagan's hometown. It was the only time the candidates faced off on TV during the campaign and gave the cash-strapped Neal a chance to get his message directly to vot

Local Republican central committee candidate Eugene ("Gene") Dermody

ers.

"I am upbeat," said Neal, who described campaigning as taking a ride on a "roller coaster."

"I have been going out all across this state. We have run a grassroots campaign with a 21st century twist to it," said Neal, a financial adviser who lives in Chapel Hill. "We have 100 counties in North Carolina and I have visited about 75 of them. We logged over 25,000 miles on the odometer since January 1."

Neal lived in San Francisco for four years in the 1990s. He has two sons, both in their 20s, and has a partner of five years, whom he declined to name.

As if waging an on-the-ground campaign wasn't hard enough for the first time political candidate, Neal now must contend with the state's Democratic presidential primary eclipsing attention to his down-ticket contest. Barack Obama is favored to win over Hillary Clinton, and Neal endorsed Obama in the match-up.

Whether it will result in an Obama bounce in his own race remains to be seen. Asked if he thought it would help him, Neal said, "I don t know. It hurt me in some quarters," referring to Clinton backers who have said they will vote for his opponent.

He did say the heated interest in the party's presidential race means it is anyone's election to win in the Senate primary.

"We are going to have a record-breaking turnout in the primary," said Neal. "The media has started to pay attention. We have gotten more attention but so many volunteers and voters are so excited now that the big tent has come to North Carolina. It has taken some wind out of the sails for everyone running for state office, but in a good way."

Neal asked that even at this late in the game LGBT people from across the country contribute to his campaign online at http://www.jimnealforsenate.com.

"I just ask that people go to the Web site and contribute," he said.

Local gay Republican runs for party seat

Gay Games coordinator Eugene ("Gene") Dermody is running in San Francisco's June 3 primary to replace Chris Bowman on the Republican County Central Committee in the 13th Assembly District. He is the only openly gay candidate among the 20 candidates running for 12 seats on the local governing board.

Dermody, who turns 60 this year, has served as Bowman's alternate on the committee, which backs local GOP candidates and sets the party's agenda. Bowman opted to retire from the committee this year and recruited Dermody as his replacement.

"No one can fill his shoes. He knows everything that has happened in this city," said Dermody, a Noe Valley resident who works for an IT company. "He is very concerned that one of these seats in the 13th go to a gay man."

Dermody is well known in local gay sports circles. He helped start the gay Golden Gate Wresting club in the early 1980s and served as a former Federation of Gay Games president. He pushed to see the gym at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center be named after Mark Bingham, the gay rugby player and fellow Republican who died on 9/11 aboard hijacked Flight 93, which crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

In 2003 KQED San Francisco named Dermody one of the public station's local Pride Heroes.

He said he opted to run for the central committee to exert some sway over what issues the local GOP champions. A former high school chemistry and physics teacher in New Jersey, Dermody moved to San Francisco in 1982. He said he would likely focus on environmental issues should he be elected.

"Probably, I am the best person to educate people what the facts are on climate change and nuclear energy. There has been a lack of respect for the sciences, but it is happening on both sides of the fence," he said.

As for running for another public office, Dermody ruled it out.

"I have no aspiration to become a political junkie in this city, believe me. I see my role of trying to educate people in the Republican Party," he said. "I am a Log Cabin type. I do have my own philosophy of how things can change, but it is different from Democrats."

His job has had him traveling out of town for most of the spring, leaving little time to focus on a campaign. This week Dermody flew to Cologne, Germany, the host of the 2010 Gay Games, to attend an organizing meeting.

"I am not intending to do any campaigning, just get endorsements. My record speaks for itself," he said during a phone interview from New York City last week. "People know about me and my history of volunteerism."

He already has the backing of the local Sierra Club chapter and the group Concerned Citizens for a Better San Francisco.

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www.ebar.com Monday mornings around 10 a.m. for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column looks into planning of a counterprotest outside the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.