The four Republican candidates running against Assemblymember Christine Kehoe for the 39th State Senate District seat are Larry Stirling, Ralph Denney, Jim Galley and Ken Bourke. The Hillcrest and North Park area, with its large block of GLBT voters, is at the center of the 39th State Senate District. The Gay and Lesbian Times interviewed the four candidates about their background, campaign goals and whether they would be courting the GLBT vote for their election.

“We’ve got to get the state saved,” said Stirling, a retired judge and businessman. “It’s totally wrecked by the people who have been governing for the last decade or so and nobody — not Democrat or Republican — has an interest in a bankrupt state. My goal is to get elected and take my thirty-five years experience to Sacramento and straighten that place up. It’s a real mess.”

Stirling served four terms in the State Assembly before being elected to the Senate in 1988. He was then appointed to the Municipal Court and worked as a Superior Court judge until retiring in 2003. He earned the name “Lysol Larry” in the 1990s when, after having an HIV-positive man in his courtroom, he had the courtroom disinfected with Lysol.

When asked if he would be courting the GLBT voting block, Stirling responded: “I think everybody in the state of California — actually everybody in the country — has exactly the same interest when it comes to the state of California.… It doesn’t matter what view of life you have, we are all the same on that particular issue — it doesn’t matter what our backgrounds are.”

Stirling supports the proposed constitutional ban on GLBT marriages.

Denney, a business manager/CFO and a notary public with a background as an enrolled agent and taxpayer’s advocate, is focused on education and business reform. “I became very unhappy with the state of affairs in our state, particularly the fact that education is consistently and constantly used as a scapegoat to our budget crisis,” Denney said. Denney is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, and has received the endorsement of both the San Diego chapter and the state organization. “Although I am of course concentrating on winning the Republican nomination,” Denney said “as a civil libertarian, I consider one of the most fundamental differences between Christine Kehoe and myself is that while she believes the GLBT community should work towards obtaining new rights, I believe we as Americans already have those rights, which have too long been unlawfully denied us.”

Regarding the proposed constitutional amendment banning GLBT marriages, Denney said he is prepared to fight against it, even if it costs him his campaign. “For myself, I strongly oppose the amendment,” he said. “As I stated in my response to the California Log Cabin Republicans, I consider the proposed amendment to not only be bad law, but the greatest single attack on civil liberties since the Jim Crow Laws of the late 1880s to early twentieth century. This has been especially brought into focus by the recent change in direction by its proponents, wherein they now say outlawing same gender marriage is not enough, they now are pushing to reverse domestic partner registries and all related GLBT gains we have made in the last twenty years.”

Galley, 49, a Grade 4 Water Treatment Plant Operator and disabled Army and Navy veteran, has worked for the City of San Diego for 18 years. He told the Gay and Lesbian Times that his primary concerns are governmental fiscal responsibility and returning jobs to California “so our kids and grandchildren have a future.”

His campaign also focuses on education issues. “Education is the way to prosperity, but California has been trying to do it for 30 years and it still doesn’t seem to be able to get it right,” he said. “I think we need to get back down to basics — Mathematics, Science and English. I believe right now our schools are over-funded. Sixty-four percent of all our property tax in San Diego County goes to schools right now. That’s why we don’t have any money for police, fire, roads. I believe [the money] is being misdirected.”

In the “Comments” section of Galley’s website, Galley criticizes Kehoe’s sponsorship of AB 1520, which passed the Assembly, 45-28, on Jan. 29. “In a time of fiscal emergency, Christine Kehoe is attempting to raise support for an expensive, frivolous project that provides little or no benefit to the taxpayers…. Additionally, this bill would violate military policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

As of press time, Galley had not responded to a message left inquiring about his stance on the proposed constitutional ban on GLBT marriages.

When asked if he is doing anything in his campaign to court the GLBT vote, Galley said he has been endorsed by a member of the Republican Rainbow Coalition, and may hold a fundraiser in the Hillcrest/North Park area next month. “The CCR [California Congress of Republicans] meets down there regularly, and I believe I was invited to a community focus group down there,” he said.

Bourke, a realtor and engineer, ran for the County Board of Supervisors in 1996, and again in 2000 against Pam Slater. His major campaign objectives are to cut the budget deficit by reducing foster care and social services, and unseal the majority of court records because “there is too much confidentiality.” He also opposes governmental restrictions on people in the areas of marriage and abortion.

“I don’t think the government should be interfering in private rights…. to the extent that they control a woman and what she can or can’t do,” he said. “The same applies to two women who want to get married. My daughter, Ruth, is a lesbian. She wanted to marry another girl — fine, that’s her right.”

Seeing a connection between the money allotted to social service programs and the budget deficit, Bourke seeks to reduce spending in those areas, particularly foster care, which he feels is corrupt. “I don’t think that the state should be involved in taking children away from their parents…. The state has a strong interest and can take the child away, but the child may not want to go away. The children that are put into foster homes turn out to be terribly depressed and they have a natural need for their parents. Whether their parents are drunk, no matter what; whether they’re drug addicts, no matter what. It is better for that child to be restored to its parent than to institutionalize the child. This is wrong — to institutionalize the child.… There is too much corruption; it’s a big business.… The foster care business is a big budget problem that ought to be eliminated. There is no real need for it.”