Is there such a thing as loyalty or friendship in politics? Or is politics just completely a dirty business, one that just stinks, one that is just full of no good, no loyal, calculating politicians? Those were some of the questions that came to our minds when we heard that Sen. Christine Kehoe and state Assembly candidate Toni Atkins endorsed former City Council candidate Stephen Whitburn for San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ District Four, currently held by Supervisor Ron Roberts, who is running for reelection. Wasn’t it just a year ago that both Atkins and Kehoe felt that Whitburn wasn’t qualified to be a city council member, but now they want us to believe that he’s qualified to be a supervisor, a position that impacts our lives much more than the whole City Council put together?

When we read that Kehoe had decided to endorse Whitburn, we thought, ‘that’s interesting. Didn’t Roberts pretty much give her her political legs, and hasn’t Roberts helped her throughout her political career in government?’ If our memory serves us right, back in the early 1990s, Kehoe was a Birkenstock-wearing liberal hippie lesbian, basically a politically unknown community organizer. Roberts represented the establishment, and he raised money for her, not only endorsing her but literally taking her by the hand and having her meet the people in power. It brought her credibility and helped lead her to win the District 3 seat on the City Council back in ’93, which lead her to become the city’s first gay elected official ever.

Again remembering what happened and not trying to rewrite history, like so many of these stinky politicians would have it, it was Republican incumbent city councilmember Roberts that had a press conference on the steps of city hall endorsing Kehoe and her bid for a council seat, basically legitimizing her as a candidate, something that none of the democrats on the council did. Kehoe’s fellow Democrats on the council, while endorsing her, didn’t step up to the level of Roberts.

And it was a different world back then. We didn’t have the gay elected officials that we have now that could have introduced Kehoe to the political power brokers at the time. Without Roberts, Kehoe wouldn’t have gotten the established political backing and wouldn’t have been able to raise the big money necessary to win. But because Roberts was so entrenched in the establishment and because he was a Republican, it brought a type of credibility that got her elected. Ask Roberts what price it cost him within his own party?

But Roberts wasn’t just there at the beginning of Kehoe’s political career; he helped Kehoe develop her political capital over the past two decades. Roberts endorsed her throughout all of her political campaigns whether it was her reelection to the City Council, her run for the state Assembly or her recent reelection campaign to the state Senate. And Roberts has consistently taken a beating for his support and endorsement of Kehoe over the years.

Roberts did the same thing with Atkins’ political career. Again endorsing her early and helping split moderate Republicans and swing them Atkins way.

Two years ago, when Atkins called Roberts and asked him to endorse Todd Gloria for City Council, Roberts didn’t beat around the bush and endorsed Gloria on the spot on the phone again risking his political capital.

For both Kehoe and Atkins to endorse anyone (even one of our own) over Roberts shows a total lack of loyalty to the person who helped establish their political careers. Personally their decision shows that they need to take a shower and use some deodorant. They, quite simply, stink!

But Ron hasn’t only been there for Kehoe and Atkins; he has always been there for the GLBT community, especially during times when it was considered political suicide to be associated with our community. Roberts is likely one of the longest running straight elected official to continuously support the GLBT community in San Diego County. His support has been broad and long-standing. Roberts has been a long-time financial supporter of local HIV/AIDS organizations and various GLBT-related organizations including, San Diego LGBT Pride, Stepping Stone, the San Diego LGBT Community Center and Mamas Kitchen just to name a few. Roberts was one of the first Republicans to march in our pride parades and has been a long time supporter of the event. Roberts has also been at the forefront of making sure that our community’s Ryan White funds are free from interference from elected officials or their appointees.

This does not mean that Roberts is the most perfect politician. He is a Republican, and he doesn’t have the best record on fighting for affordable housing as well as some other important issues to our community. Kehoe and Atkins’ endorsement of Whitburn shows a total lack of respect and maturity on their part. It also shows that both government officials couldn’t care less about good old fashion friendship. Ask Ron, he considers both Kehoe and Atkins as his friends, not the kind of friends Julius Caesar had.

Kehoe and Atkins could have told Whitburn, ‘listen we’ve just got to sit this one out. Roberts has really stuck his neck out for us’ and could have just quietly bowed out and stayed neutral. City Councilmember Todd Gloria, we commend, has taken that stance.

As Kehoe begins to consider her options for 2012 (when she will be termed out due to term limits), we wonder if she will not think twice about another friend of our community’s Rep. Bob Filner. Kehoe basically has four options in terms of her political ambitions after she is termed of the state Senate: run for the Assembly – which would be a step back since she was already an assemblymember; run for mayor; run for congress or retire. If Kehoe runs for Congress, she would run against either Filner or Rep. Susan Davis, both long term friends and advocates of our community. If Kehoe decides to run for mayor, she may be running against Filner. In either case, should loyalty be considered? Do what Filner and Davis have done carry any weight if they were to run against Kehoe? Or is it OK to simply boot them out when we get the chance to have one of our own at the table?

According to the Human Rights Campaign and the National Organization for Women, we currently have straight assemblymembers that have better voting records on GLBT issues then the gay Speaker of the Assembly. Maybe Harvey Milk was wrong when he said that it wasn’t enough to have friends at the table, we needed to be seated along side of them.