You wanted change, and together, we'll begin that journey today. I promised I would work to lower your property taxes, preserve our green space, and put a stop to the rampant overdevelopment that has changed Broward County. And I pledged to you that I would be a full-time County Commissioner -- looking after your interests, not my own.



We have much work to do, and I look forward to working with you -- and for you -- to make it all happen.



Ken

By PHIL LAPADULA

At about 9:30 p.m. Nov. 7, Ken Keechl stood in the jam-packed living room of his Coral Ridge, Fla., home and jubilantly declared victory as the cameras clicked and the movers and shakers of Fort Lauderdale’s gay and lesbian community gathered around him to celebrate.

Keechl, 45, had just made history, becoming the first openly gay candidate elected to the Broward County Commission.

“The people of District 4 were looking for a change,” Keechl said in an interview afterward. “They were tired of being overtaxed, tired of overdevelopment and they wanted a full-time county commissioner.”

Keechl, a former president of the gay Dolphin Democrats club, hugged his partner as Dean Trantalis, who was the first gay candidate elected to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission in 2002, looked on and cheered.

Keechl was one of two local gay candidates who came out on top in Tuesday’s mid-term election. Michael Gongora, a gay candidate for Miami Beach City Commission, was the top vote-getter in a five-candidate field and will now face a run-off with second-place finisher Deede Weithorn.

Bryan Worthington, a gay candidate in Sarasota, Fla., lost his race for Charter Review Board.

Local gay activists are characterizing the 2006 mid-term election as a victory for gay rights proponents and a defeat for anti-gay extremists. In Florida’s Congressional races, gay-friendly Democratic candidates picked up two seats that had been held by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. As of Wednesday, a third Congressional pickup was possible pending the outcome of a recount. In the Florida legislature, the Democrats made gains in both the House and Senate as several pro-gay rights candidates won. Activists also noted that several anti-gay candidates, including some incumbents, were defeated in the state races.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with the results at the national, state and local level,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of the gay rights group Equality Florida. “It has heralded the end to the era when gay bashing was a short-cut to political victory.”

While Democrats won a majority of governorships throughout the country, Florida voters elected Republican Charlie Crist to succeed Jeb Bush. Crist, currently the state’s attorney general, defeated U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, who was endorsed by both Equality Florida and the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus.

Crist received 52 percent of the vote to Davis’ 45 percent. Reform Party candidate Max Linn garnered 2 percent of the vote. During the campaign, Linn publicly stated that Crist is gay. Crist has repeatedly denied that he is gay.

Equality Florida’s Nadine Smith said she regards the voters’ “general indifference” to rumors about Crist’s sexual orientation as a “backhanded sign of progress in the gay rights struggle.”

“There was a time when even the rumor about someone being gay would be enough to sink their career,” Smith said.

Gay-friendly Dems win Congressional races

In the U.S. House races, Florida Democrats rode a national Democratic wave to victory. In the hotly contested Dist. 22 race, Ron Klein, who was backed by the Human Rights Campaign, defeated 13-term incumbent Republican Rep. Clay Shaw.

Andy Eddy, communications director for the Broward Log Cabin Club of Florida, was not shedding any tears over Shaw’s defeat. He said the national Log Cabin Republicans did not endorse Shaw because of his poor record on gay-rights issues. He noted, for example, that Shaw has refused to support Log Cabin’s efforts to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay service members.

But Eddy pointed out that U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was endorsed by Log Cabin and does support lifting the military ban, won reelection easily. Lincoln Diaz-Ballard, another Log Cabin-endorsed Republican, was also reelected. Eddy also noted that State Rep. Elyn Bogdanoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican who was endorsed by Log Cabin, won in a close race against Democrat Christian Chiari. And Faye Culp, a Republican state representative from Tampa who was endorsed by Equality Florida, also won reelection.

In former Congressman Mark Foley’s district, Democrat Tim Mahoney, who was endorsed by the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, defeated Foley’s replacement, state Rep. Joe Negron. Negron received a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition and was considered much further to the right on gay issues than Foley was.

A third Congressional race, the Dist. 13 contest between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan, was too close to call and headed for a recount as of Wednesday afternoon. Buchanan led by about 300 votes in the race to fill the seat vacated by Republican Katherine Harris, who ran for the Senate.

Alex Sink sinks anti-gay Lee

In the race for chief financial officer of the state, Democrat Alex Sink defeated anti-gay Republican Tom Lee. The race had been close, but Sink ended up winning with 54 percent of the vote to Lee’s 46 percent. Lee, the former president of the Florida Senate, made headlines in the gay press earlier this year when he blocked a school anti-bullying bill. Lee also blocked a bill that would have allowed gay men and lesbians to adopt children on a case-by-case basis.

Michael Albetta, president of the GLBT Democratic Caucus, said he found Lee’s defeat particularly satisfying because Lee had sent out an anti-gay mailer during the campaign that used a photo of Sink speaking at the GLBT Democratic Caucus convention to try to dissuade voters.

Lee was the only Republican to lose in the cabinet races. He was only one of two Republicans to lose in a statewide race. The other was Rep. Katherine Harris, who lost to Sen. Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate race. Nelson received 60 percent of the vote to Harris’ 38 percent.

Equality Florida had targeted eight state and local races that were hotly contested and included pro-gay rights candidates.

In seven of the eight races, the gay-friendly candidate won. In the eighth race, Gongora, a gay candidate for Miami Beach Commission, was the top vote-getter but must face a run-off.

“They were close races where we thought we could make a difference,” said Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida.

Gay activists were particular pleased about Democrat Martin Kiar’s defeat of anti-gay Republican Susan Goldstein in a race for the Florida House.

“Kiar is good on our issues, and Goldstein is consistently against us and mean-spirited,” Albetta said.

In another race with a sharp contrast, Democrat Charlie Justice defeated Republican Kim Berfield for an open state Senate seat that had been vacated by a Republican. According to Pollitzer, Justice supports gay rights, and Berfield was “not good on [gay] issues at all.” Furthermore, Jim Sebesta, the Republican who used to hold the seat, “was terrible,” Pollitzer said.

Luis Garcia, a Democratic candidate for the Florida House who was strongly backed by Equality Florida, won his race against Republican Frank Carollo. As a Miami Beach commissioner, Garcia sponsored a domestic partnership bill.

Storms’ victory a disappointment

One disappointment for gay activists was Rhonda Storms’ narrow victory in her Florida House race. As a county commissioner, Storms introduced a resolution in Hillsborough County that prohibits the county from recognizing or participating in gay pride events. Storms won with 53 percent of the vote to Stephen Gorham’s 46 percent.

But overall, the results in the state races were encouraging for gay-rights advocates, Pollitzer said.

“After these elections, Tallahassee is a much more friendly place for gay issues,” Pollitzer said. “We made significant pickups in the legislature, and we have in Crist a more moderate voice in the governor’s mansion than we’ve had in Jeb Bush.”

The election also created a higher hurdle for gay-rights foes who are trying to place an anti-gay marriage amendment on the 2008 Florida ballot. Voters approved a ballot measure that requires a two-thirds of the vote to pass a constitutional amendment. Previously, only a simple majority was required.

Smith, of Equality Florida, said the defeat of an anti-gay marriage amendment in Arizona, the first state to reject such a measure, bodes well for efforts to prevent the passage of an amendment in Florida. She noted that Arizona has many similarities to Florida, and a recent Zogby poll showed that 51 percent of Florida voters are now opposed to the proposed anti-gay amendment.

As gay Democrats celebrated, Log Cabin’s Andy Eddy said he does not expect the election to have much of an effect on the role of gay Republicans in the political process.

“No matter who wins, our job is tough,” Eddy said. “At times we’re discriminated against in our own community. It’s a challenge, but we will continue to address the challenge and try to make inroads for equality within the Republican Party.”