Gay Marriage Supporters in Maine Rethink Strategies: Persuasion over Phonebanking

It's been nearly two months since Maine voters approved Question 1, vetoing the state's same-sex marriage bill.  In the wake of such a devastating defeat for the cause of equality, it's necessary for marriage proponents to cast a critical eye upon their own strategy; otherwise, how else can future campaigns reverse these setbacks?  Fortunately, it seems that supporters of marriage equality in Maine -- including the state's leading gay rights organization, Equality Maine -- are stepping up to the task.

According to the Maine newspaper website seacoastonline.com, same-sex marriage supporters are already laying the groundwork to prevent a redux of Question 1.  In community meetings around the state, they've been discussing a multi-pronged strategy to restore equality, and it appears that the current agenda calls for a sea change in tactics.

So what's being proposed?  While Equality Maine is devoting much of its efforts to electing more pro-gay legislators in preparation for a re-vote on the marriage bill, their long-term plan calls for a drastically different approach from the turnout-focused No on 1 campaign.  According to the report, this plan "focuses less on identifying likely voters than it does on having conversations with people in the more rural, small-town pockets of Maine" -- exactly the parts of the state that overwhelmingly voted for Question 1.

But addressing the geographic patterns from Nov. 3 isn't the only reason why marriage supporters should focus on persuading swing voters, and not only in the state's "rural, small-town pockets."

In October, I personally spent a week in the Bangor area volunteering with the No on 1 campaign. The office was incredibly well-run and energetic, my fellow volunteers were absolutely brilliant and unwavering in their dedication to their cause, and it seemed that we were making full use of our significant fundraising advantage. But every activity we were assigned, whether it be canvassing, phonebanking, or volunteer recruitment, was founded on a set of assumptions: that this would be an extremely close race, with the outcome coming down to a few thousand votes; that we already had identified enough supporters, and just needed to get them to turn out; and finally, that higher turnout would benefit our side. And while the first and last of these assumptions were shared by many on both sides of Question 1, it was only after the results came in that it became apparent just how wrong this conventional wisdom had been. Despite voter turnout of 60% -- a record for an off-year election -- Question 1 ultimately passed by over 30,000 votes, thanks not just to overwhelming margins in rural Maine but also to underwhelming performance by our side in urban areas.

Maine is not a homophobic state.  In 2005, voters there resoundingly rejected an earlier Question 1, which would have repealed the state's anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT Mainers. The group of voters that rejected Question 1 in 2005 but approved it in 2009 is the group that gay marriage supporters most need to convince. And that's probably not something that can be done by reading from a script.

In a November 2009 piece, former No on 1 volunteer Jasmine Beach-Ferrara wrote an eloquent piece about her experiences on the campaign, in which she called for just the kind of strategic reevaluation that Maine activists are beginning to engage in. After describing her experiences attempting to persuade a sympathetic pair of Question 1 supporters, she concludes: "We need to approach swing voters with conversations and options that are actually aligned with their beliefs and questions. We need to do so not just to start winning campaigns, but in the long-term interest of winning full equality in our public and private lives."

As Beach-Ferrara makes clear, this won't be as easy as sending volunteers out to read from a script. It'll be a long, challenging process, involving sustained interaction with swing voters over months or even years. But as the passage of Question 1 shows, it'll likely be quite some time before gay marriage supporters can win a campaign on turnout alone. The persuasion strategy won't reap dividends overnight, but it's a far more promising path than relying on turnout again -- or simply waiting for demographics to shift in our favor.

Above: Volunteer meeting at the No on 1 headquarters in Portland.  Photo by Patrickometry via Flickr.