The flap over Michelle Nunn and her wink, wink support of LGBT issues including gay marriage has grown from concerning to the ridiculous. Her press people, ostensibly the ones hired to talk to the press, now refuse to do even that.
Even as the Democratic candidate for Georgia's open U.S. Senate seat strategizes about capturing gay votes and dollars, she keeps stumbling over the extent of her support of same-sex marriage. She won't go as far as strategists suggest she should, or as far as gay supporters expect, which is causing quite a bit of handwringing among LGBT politicos.
And the latest misstep by Nunn comes from the very people hired to manage the campaign's press operation. They aren't so much managing Nunn's growing gay problem as they are contributing to it by keeping Nunn from the GA Voice, which has repeatedly requested an interview with her. Worse yet, her campaign press flacks are running scared.
The GA Voice has been requesting an interview with Nunn to give her the opportunity to clarify her views on LGBT issues to the community since early this year. The GA Voice showed up at Nunn’s Midtown headquarters on Sept. 3 for an LGBT volunteer night to ask the volunteers a few questions and seek answers from her staff.
Nunn’s press secretary, Michael Tyler, did not allow the GA Voice access to the volunteers, who were phone banking in the next room, and he refused to answer any questions on the record. The GA Voice was also denied an introduction to [spokesman Nathan] Click, who was in the building at the time.
Some of Nunn's LGBT critics did meet with campaign manager Jeff DiSantis last week to demand that she “fully and unambiguously” support marriage equality and more fully detail her support for other gay issues, according to the GA Voice. But DiSantis didn't make any promises.
In the meantime, Nunn's non-gay supporters are urging her to do better by gay marriage, including U.S. Rep. John Lewis and Mayor Kasim Reed.
