From Erik Johns in The Other Paper:

Bill Brownson is an openly gay Republican running for Columbus City Council. He’s got solid credentials and endorsements from The Columbus Dispatch, Equality Ohio, the Fraternal Order of Police, and a slew of leaders in the gay community.

One endorsement he doesn’t have is from Outlook Weekly, the paper of record for Columbus’s gay community.

“We started the process, as the queer newspaper, hoping we could endorse the queer candidate,” said Outlook co-publisher Michael Daniels. “But we were not going to endorse someone based purely on their sexual orientation.”

Instead, the newspaper endorsed all four of the Democratic incumbents running for council in the Nov. 6 field race. Outlook also endorsed Democratic Councilwoman Priscilla Tyson in a separate race to fill an unexpired term.

A major bone of contention stated by Outlook in last week’s issue is that Brownson isn’t “running entirely as an ‘out’ candidate.” The paper criticizes him for not referencing his long-time partner or his personal life in his campaign literature.

In Columbus, Republicans are outnumbered and their campaigns are always an uphill battle. And it is truly disheartening, but not surprising, that a gay newspaper would end up shilling for Democrats. And I think this is the type of problem which always arises when a Republican tries to pander to any of the traditionally Democratic interest groups.

My original problem with Bill Brownson (see here, here, and here) is that he decided to make sexual orientation a major part of his campaign. But from all accounts that I’ve heard and read, he is a fiscal conservative, has his head on straight (no pun intended) when it comes to wanting to fight Democrat city government corruption, and is infinitely more qualified for the job than his opposition.

In my opinion, Republicans have the best platform for homosexuals, as the GOP is strong on law enforcement and wants to keep taxes low… And those issues are probably why Brownson is a Republican. But Brownson should wear this rejection from the Weekly Outlook as a badge of honor, as it shows that he would not submit to the “gay community’s” requirement to remain on the Democrat plantation.