But the heart of his giving, $5 million, was in Colorado. He again targeted Marilyn Musgrave and supported Democratic congressional candidates, but devoted most of his money to expanding the Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, battling a gay-marriage ban on the ballot and supporting a domestic-partnership measure.
His results were mixed. Amendment 43 was a constitutional marriage amendment that would deny same-sex couples the right to marry, while Referendum I would have made Colorado the first state to grant domestic-partner benefits to same-sex couples. Gill donated $2.7 million to Coloradans for Fairness, which organized the drive to pass Referendum I. Amendment 43 passed by 12 points, and Referendum I failed by 6 points.
The loss on Referendum I was a heartbreaker for Gill and his organization. "We came extremely close," said Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Gill Action Fund, Gill's political action committee. Guerriero -- who used to be President of the Log Cabin Republicans, an advocacy group for openly gay Republicans -- added that it was both "a sign of amazing progress and also a sign that there's more work to be done."
In the state Legislature, however, Democrats cruised. They added four seats in the House and four in the Senate and elected a Democratic governor to replace outgoing Republican Bill Owens. And it is state legislatures, said Kenneth Sherrill, an openly gay professor and director of Hunter College's Center for Sexuality and Public Policy, that are particularly critical in the struggle for gay rights.
First, explained Sherrill, state legislatures are farm teams for the big leagues. "Progressives have been so focused on national politics," said Sherrill, "that we've lost track of the pipeline. I've heard Tim Gill say, 'If we'd had the wisdom to head Musgrave off in the state Legislature, then we would not be in the position of having to deal with her in Congress.'"
Second, and more important, state legislatures are where most of the battles for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights are being won and lost. The federal government has largely left the states alone to decide whether gay people can visit their partners in the hospital or have the power to make emergency medical decisions; whether partners can join benefit plans, get health insurance, or receive their partner's pension after they pass away; and whether same-sex couples should be able to adopt children, foster children, or get married.
Overall, 45 states have taken some form of legislative action to prohibit same-sex marriage; 26 of those states have voted to amend their state constitutions. The vast majority of those measures, though ratified by public referenda, originated in state legislatures.
"We have gotten creamed with amendments to state constitutions and with state DOMAs [Defense of Marriage Acts]," said Sherrill. "The fight for marriage equality will certainly be at the legislative level for some time to come."
But because of Gill et al., in Colorado the state Legislature probably won't be floating any more anti-gay legislation in the near future. The pro-gay Referendum I, for instance, was approved to appear on the November ballot by Colorado's now-Democratic and gay-friendly Legislature. The anti-gay marriage amendment, by comparison, reached the ballot via a signature drive funded by conservative groups like James Dobson's Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family.
Meanwhile, in Kalamazoo, Mich., Pat Stryker's brother has taken the Colorado lesson about state legislatures and supersized it. Jon Stryker, whose personal fortune was estimated at $1.7 billion by Forbes, spent heavily on races in 15 state legislatures nationwide to protect, build or win Democratic majorities. His expenditures far outpaced what he had spent in previous election cycles.
"Jon supports a larger progressive movement," said Lisa Turner, Stryker's national political advisor. "Part of that movement is building majorities in state legislatures where policies that support social justice and civil rights can thrive."
According to Turner, Stryker's 2006 efforts to extend Democratic majorities in state legislatures and/or flip control of state legislative chambers to the Democrats were successful. In all, Democrats took control of 10 state legislative chambers in 2006 without losing one. Turner would not name all the states where Stryker was active, nor give the total amount Stryker spent. "All the chambers we focused on," she claimed, "we won."
Turner would confirm that for Stryker, taking control of the House in his home state of Michigan was a key goal. Based on filings with the Michigan secretary of state, Stryker made more than $5 million in political donations within the state through both his personal contributions and his PAC, the Coalition for Progress. While the GOP lost only one seat in the state Senate, however, Democrats did take control of the state House, just as Stryker had hoped.
Stryker also poured more than $1 million into the reelection campaign of Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who faced a tough reelection challenge from billionaire Dick DeVos. Stryker's millions helped counterbalance the large sums of his own money that Dick DeVos was spending on the race. Though he didn't think Stryker's contributions were the only reason Granholm won, said Peter Wielhouwer, an assistant professor of political science at Western Michigan University, "Certainly, anytime somebody is dumping a million dollars' worth of ads to oppose a candidate, that's going to have some kind of an effect."
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