AN OPEN LETTER TO CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS AND OUR LEADERS

June 27, 2007

Dear Republican Party Leader:

A poll was released June 27, 2007 that measured the views of Republicans nationwide on a variety of issues. One segment of that poll had to do with equality for gays and lesbians. I wanted to share that data with you so that you understand the views of the base of the Republican Party on these issues.

43% of Republicans favor recognizing some form of legal relationship (such as civil unions) of same sex couples.  51% oppose any recognition with the rest undecided.

48% said the government should not restrict gay and lesbian behavior.

49% of Republicans favor allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military while only 42% oppose it.

77% said employers should NOT have the right to fire an employee based solely on their sexual orientation. Even 67% of social conservatives agree that employers shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate.

45% say they know someone gay or lesbian and 1% said they were “homosexual,” but 51% said they didn’t know someone gay or lesbian.

53% of Republicans agreed with this statement:

“The Republican Party has spent too much time focusing on moral issues such as abortion and gay marriage and should instead be spending time focusing on economic issues such as taxes and government spending”.

If you truly oppose equality for gays and lesbians, I can respect that. But if you hold the public views you do or vote against legislation, then I hope this data will show that Republicans reflect the mainstream views of equality that Log Cabin Republicans does.   This is a case where the people are leading and we should follow. This is the recipe for winning elections again in California.  When we oppose equality, we risk turning off not just Independent voters, but turning off the base of our own Party.  We understand that the nature of being conservative is that we don’t rush into things so that we preserve the best of our values and traditions.  But Republican voters realize that treating gays and lesbians with respect does not endanger our values, it enhances them.  Log Cabin exists because we want voters to understand that lower taxes, less regulation and strong defense is good for ALL Californians.

I look forward to working with you as always to bring back a majority of Republicans to all legislative bodies in California.

Sincerely,

James Vaughn

California Log Cabin Republicans

Background and Methodology of the Poll

?         A decade ago, Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates  (FMA) released it’s groundbreaking study entitled  “The Elephant Looks in the Mirror.”  The study took a critical look at the core beliefs of the GOP and broke the party down into issue and principle based segments.  That study became a roadmap for many in the Party and Media in understanding the rank and file GOP.

?         Now FMA has again conducted a national study of GOP voters to take a fresh look at the GOP and where it stands 10 years later – what is the same, what has changed and what is new.

?         This survey of 2,000 self-described Republican voters was conducted both via telephone and online between May 28th and June 3rd, 2007.

?         1,000 surveys were conducted via telephone by professionally trained interviewers using computer-assisted interviewing technology (CATI).  Interview selection was random within predetermined geographic units to correlate with GOP voter turnout based on the 2004 Presidential election

?         1,000 surveys were completed online through a web survey host portal.  Respondents were randomly solicited from a national panel of tens of millions of potential respondents who indicate their willingness to participate in online research.  Respondents were screened to party affiliation and geographic requirements based on 2004 GOP voter turnout.

?         Overall data  was weighted to reflect actual online usage.

?         This survey of 2,000 respondents has a margin of error of +/- 2.2% at the 95% confidence interval.

Other poll results:

• 71% declared themselves conservative compared to 21% moderate
• 50% declared themselves born again, evangelical or both
• 48% are suburban, 32% rural and 18% urban
• 1% selected Gay Marriage as their number one issue
• Regional snapshot of the respondents: Northeast 16%, Midwest 26%, South 38%, West 20%