Columnists :: Pressing The Flesh
From Minnesota, with love; McTighe says goodbye by Laura Kiritsy
Editor-in-chiefFriday Sep 26, 2008 Madia in Massachusetts
Ashwin Madia is a lucky guy. Not only did the Minnesota congressional candidate have the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Boston City Councilor Mike Ross as the Democratic National Convention in Denver last month; now, Ross is helping Madia, a Marine Corps lawyer and Iraq War veteran, raise money for his bid to become the first Indian-American in Congress. Ross and a host of other local notables, including fellow city councilors John Connolly and John Tobin, state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry and Democratic fundraisers Alan Solomon and Steve Grossman, are holding a fundraiser for Madia on Sept. 28. Madia has another local connection in the form of campaign manager Stuart Rosenberg, who formerly worked for Ross and managed Forry’s 2005 special election to the legislature.
And why should you care about Madia’s candidacy? Well, for starters, he’s running in a general election race against Republican Erik Paulsen, the House Majority Leader at the Minnesota State House, a religious-right-leaning candidate who has twice voted for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and opposed domestic partnership benefits.
Meanwhile, Madia, a former Republican, supports marriage equality and has the distinction of successfully defending a gay Marine against discharge because of the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy.
"It was a pretty special case," said Madia of representing one of two Marines who had been caught viewing porn on company computers. Madia’s client, however, was caught looking at gay porn, while his colleague was caught ogling the straight stuff. Madia said the straight Marine received little more than a slap on the wrist for the transgression.
"My Marine," he continued, "they busted his rank, they reduced his pay and they wanted to throw him out of the Marine Corps with a less-than-honorable discharge. The discrepancy was so startling about it."
Maida argued his client’s case before a Marine Corps panel in the spring of 2005. "They came back and they retained the Marine," Madia recalled. "They said, ’This is garbage,’ and they retained him. I was pretty proud of that because it was a chance to win a tough case with a tough jury for a cause and a client that I really believed in.
"At the end of the day we’re all in this together," Madia explained of his reason for defending the imperiled Marine. "And if somebody is willing to wear the uniform for this country and fight and maybe even die for it, then it shouldn’t mater who they are or who they love."
So would Madia support repealing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," as a congressman? "That’s a pretty safe assumption, yeah."
Despite his progressive views on LGBT rights and marriage equality, Madia is a self-described "social moderate," going so far as to poach the right-wing mantel of being "pro-family."
"I’m in favor of families," said Madia. "And frankly when we’ve got a raging war in Iraq, we’ve got Wall Street on the brink of collapse, we’ve got a huge trade deficit, a huge budget deficit and the economy could really use some work. Frankly, I think two people that love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together is the least of our problems. To me it doesn’t make sense to try and use government to hurt people.
"So I don’t view it as all that liberal a position," he added. "I think it’s a pretty moderate and measured position. I am in favor of families."
The fundraiser takes place from noon to 2 p.m. at Lir Irish Pub and Restaurant in Boston. Yes, the Indian-American guy will apparently be knocking back the pints on his trip to Boston rather than brunching at Kashmir. When in Rome. "Well," he laughed, "we figured there’s probably more Irish people than Indians in Boston."
Saying goodbye to Matt McTighe
Parting is such sweet sorrow, even with a few "Equalitinis" to dull the sorrowful part. That pretty much sums up the gathering held in Matt McTighe’s honor at the South End nightspot 28 Degrees on Sept. 18. McTighe is vacating his post as MassEquality’s Political Director after three years to travel and care for a friend who is seriously ill. While there were plenty of kind words for McTighe and the work he did as MassEquality led the highly successful, multi-year campaign to preserve marriage equality in Massachusetts, there were some emotional moments, such as when McTighe proclaimed that he loved his soon-to-be-former boss, MassEquality Executive Director Marc Solomon.
"Not in a gay way," he reassured the crowd, which included state Reps. Jamie Eldridge, who presented McTighe with a House proclamation lauding his work to preserve marriage equality; the syllabically-challenged Angelo Puppolo, who was enjoying an "Equal-tini" and Paul Loscocco, who’s pondering taking boxing lessons from the athletically-ambitious McTighe. A gay man in the ring with a Republican lawmaker? They could sell tickets!
And apparently, McTighe adapted his fighting skills to his lobbying strategy. "Matt was able to put Angelo Puppolo in a headlock and get him to vote the right way on gay marriage," Solomon deadpanned, "which was just a blessing."
Solomon also hinted that McTighe might have had a different sort of gay agenda than marriage equality when it came to lobbying some of the more hunky members of the legislature (sorry, Puppolo). "Matt was always the man in the legislature to lobby Jim Vallee," Solomon said, referencing the Franklin Democrat who was one of the last holdouts on supporting marriage equality. "I don’t know why. But he always demanded to lobby Jim Vallee."
As a parting gift, Solomon presented McTighe with an enlarged, framed copy of the iconic photo of the Gov. Deval Patrick, House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray raising their arms in victory at a marriage equality rally that was held shortly before an anti-gay marriage amendment went down to defeat last year. Solomon told McTighe that the three political leaders would autograph the historic photo. McTighe, however, was more intent on pointing out his own place in history. Approaching the photo that Solomon held aloft, he fingered a barely-visible piece of flesh in the background of the photo. "That’s my ear," he said proudly.
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