HRC: Many Factors At Work

David Smith, VP of Programs at HRC, via e-mail:

[...]

As you acknowledge in your blog post, there are many factors that go into determining which candidate to endorse. It is not good strategy to work against an incumbent with a demonstrated track record in the Senate, who has laid the groundwork for the progress we want to make...

HRC is a bipartisan organization. This is not an empty principle or a meaningless nod to an ideal we do not follow. We are bipartisan because equality knows no party, and because we simply cannot achieve justice for the entire GLBT community by conceding that only Democrats should care about us. We cannot, should not, and will not make fundamental human rights--the right to work, the right to be safe from hate violence,
the right to protect your family--a partisan issue.

To her credit, Susan Collins has demonstrated that our rights are not a partisan issue, but an American issue...

We thank Rep. Allen for his continued commitment to equal rights. We stand by our endorsement of ally, friend, and leader Senator Susan Collins.

Striking, for a couple reasons.

Smith is being pretty open about the power dynamics here: He acknowledges that pissing off incumbents isn't in HRC's interests. But he also makes it clear that Collins' Republican affiliation weighed in favor of endorsing her. And he implies that it weighed rather heavily.

Of course, critics of the endorsement likely agree with Smith that HRC ought to be a bipartisan organization. But they'd argue that the onus should be on Republicans to sign onto HRC's agenda--rather than on HRC to bend its standards to accommodate members of the GOP.

UPDATE: Having now listened to Mike Signorile's interview with HRC's David Smith, I heartily recommend it. Worth your while if you have a few minutes.