A reception for 76th Assembly District candidate Vince Hall at a private home on Thursday, Feb. 12, brought out a large portion of the GLBT community as well as other supporters of his campaign. The event was the final opportunity before the March 2 primary election to raise funds for yard signs, brochures and get-out-the-vote activities, as well as being an opportunity for Hall to speak directly to his supporters and rally for the final three-week push toward election day.

“The 76th District encompasses most of San Diego’s LGBT neighborhoods, and the March 2 election is one in which the community is almost unified behind its support of my candidacy,” Hall said. “It was in fact the leadership of the LGBT community that encouraged me to run in the 76th District… My commitment to the gay and lesbian community is that I am going to be more than just a good vote in the State Assembly… I am going to be a fighter for the LGBT community.”

Hall’s supporters include Congressmember Bob Filner, Senator Denise Ducheny and San Diego Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins. Organizations who have endorsed his candidacy include the California Faculty Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Department of Forestry Firefighters, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the Sierra Club, the San Diego Democratic Club, the Gay & Lesbian Times and GLBT Vote 2004.

“Vince has been a longtime friend of San Diego’s LGBT community and a strong advocate for the issues that are important to us,” said Deputy Mayor Atkins. “I endorsed Vince because I believe he will continue to champion our causes in Sacramento.”

Hall served as Gray Davis’ communications director when Davis was Lieutenant Governor and then as a staff director when Davis was elected Governor. He also worked as Congressmember Bob Filner’s technology advisor when Filner was a member of the San Diego City Council, and ran an Internet start-up company that focused on web solutions for state and local government agencies.

A large part of Hall’s campaign activities so far have been canvassing neighborhoods and walking precincts. “This election I think marks a major test of the strength of grassroots campaigning, in that my campaign has put its emphasis on door-to-door voter contact,” Hall said. “We’re going to test whether politics is about people or about money.”

Hall said the 2002 campaign he lost to Shirley Horton for the 78th Assembly District used similar tactics during the primary campaign. “In 2002, I was a first-time candidate…. By walking precincts and going door-to-door over an eight-month period, we were able to introduce me to enough voters and persuade enough voters that… I succeeded in securing the Democratic nomination. That’s the kind of campaign we’re running now, in the 76th Assembly District. So it’s significantly different than the campaign that was run in the general election of 2002, in that people from Sacramento… had strongly urged a movement away from grassroots campaigning… and a much heavier reliance on television and mass media, which I believe was a fatal mistake.”

The top goal for Hall, if elected, is reforming the state budget. Other major goals include the preservation of San Diego’s environment, economic support for the middle class and GLBT civil rights – an issue he sees as a major difference between himself and Heidi von Szeliski, another leading candidate in the Democratic primaries.

“Ms. von Szeliski claims to be an advocate for gay and lesbian civil rights,” Hall said. “However, in 20 years of involvement in this community, she has never donated an hour of her time or a dollar of her money to help any gay or lesbian candidate or organization. The only claim that she makes to having helped gay and lesbian civil rights comes in the form of billable hours in which she, as a political consultant, enriched herself at the expense of gay and lesbian civil rights… To now suggest that her profiteering is a virtue, that by making money off of gay and lesbian civil rights she is somehow entitled to identify herself as a champion of civil rights is the ultimate in cynicism.”

“The kind of projects I have sought out have reflected my personal values,” Szeliski said in response to Hall’s comments. “We pursue projects, campaigns, candidates, issues and affiliations on purpose… Being so solidly identified with pursuing all types of these issues was a purposeful commitment on my part…. So much of the work is used by organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and the Victory Fund and other articles that we’ve written to help them in their training to elect LGBT candidates around the country… I wanted this firm to be known for its commitment to making a difference on a statewide and national level, to the most important issues, and part of those were rooted in my commitment for achieving basic fairness and civil rights…. There are three types of activist: one aspect of it is grassroots, another is being a candidate and electing folks who represent those values and that diversity, and the third aspect is people who help them get there, who form and frame a public message that can move the ball forward. There are different ways of being an advocate and an activist and I’ve put it into my work.”

Hall was endorsed 63-1 by the San Diego Democratic Club. The abstaining vote came from Assemblymember Christine Kehoe, who endorsed von Szeliski. “We cannot lose another Assembly seat to a moderate Republican like we did in 2002 when Vince Hall ran against Shirley Horton,” Kehoe said in a guest commentary published in last week’s edition of the Gay & Lesbian Times. “This was a thoughtful decision arrived at with our current political climate very much in mind…. In Sacramento many important bills, including AB 205 (The Domestic Partner Rights & Responsibilities Act), passed with only the bare majority…. It is essential that we maintain our Democratic seats…. Heidi is the strongest candidate who can win.”

In the article, Kehoe cited Szeliski’s work to defeat the Knight Initiative, her fight against anti-gay ballot measures in twelve states, and her help in electing Sheila Kuehl, the first openly gay or lesbian member of the California State Legislature, and Jackie Goldberg, the first openly gay or lesbian Los Angeles City Councilmember.

“Maybe all but one of every member of the LGBT Legislative Caucus has personally endorsed me,” Szeliski added. “That speaks a lot.”

Besides Kehoe, Senator Dede Alpert, former Assemblymember Howard Wayne, Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, Senator Sheila Kuehl and Assemblymember Mark Leno have endorsed Szeliski. She has also received endorsements from the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, California State Firefighters Association, the Municipal Employees Association and the Legislative Women’s Caucus, among others.