NY Sen. Joseph Addabbo, Who Was Funded By LGBT Groups, Explains His "No" Vote on Marriage

New York Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. had long been considered a swing vote on marriage equality. Unfortunately he turned out to be one of four "Democratic" senators from Queens who helped derail equality. Addabbo's vote was a literal slap in the face because he was elected with the help of LGBT such as the Gill Action Fund and the Human Rights Campaign. Addabbo's explanation: Most of the phone calls into his office were against marriage equality.

Addabbo appeared on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC on Friday to explain his “no” vote. Addabbo came under fire immediately after the vote on Wednesday as one of the Democrats suspected of having “betrayed” advocates including Senator Tom Duane, the openly gay sponsor of the bill. In 2008, state campaign finance records indicate that Addaboo received $9,500, the maximum allowable contribution, from gay philanthropist Tim Gill, the backer of the Gill Action Fund. The contribution was part of the wave of support, ultimately totaling close to $1 million, that helped flip the senate to Democratic control and install candidates who pledged to uphold pro-LGBT positions, including support for marriage equality.

On Friday, Addabbo defended himself by saying that he had never promised to vote “yes” on the bill, and that he wanted to keep his options open in order to gauge the sentiments of his constituents. "At no point did I ever say ‘yes,’” said Addabbo. "I proposed I would keep an open mind. It was my intention to keep an open mind and by doing so, I felt that I would get a clear indication of where my district stands on this issue," said Addabbo, who said that he received more than 400 communications from constituents, 74% of whom opposed marriage equality. Pressed on whether he would also allow 74% of constituents to influence a vote on something absurd, such as a hypothetical proposal to deport all the Hispanics in the district, Addabbo said, "It’s apples and oranges."

Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog checked Addabbo's 2008 campaign finance reports: In addition to the $9,500 from Gill, HRC's New York PAC donated $9,500 and gay philanthropist Jon Stryker donated $4,000. Shameless, no?

It's a safe bet to assume that "most" of the calls to Senate President Malcolm Smith, who represents St. Albans, Queens, were against equality, too. Or most of the calls to Eric Adams (Brooklyn) and Ruth Hassell-Thompson (Bronx) were probably against marriage, but they voted for equality for all New Yorkers.

Addabbo narrowly won election over a Republican challenger. His seat is considered especially vulnerable. Time to start looking for a primary challenger...

Comments

[alberto]

What a...

[Carlos]

What a SOB.
I'll gladly help donate to anyone looking to unseat Addabbo and Montserrate who were the biggest rats. But it looks like Hiram is going to jail first tho. They hate rats even more in prison.

[CC]

Get that MF outta office!! whether he knows it or not, he has potentially made a career suicide, for he will now be known as a turncoat and cannot be trusted to support his supporters. Can we get someone to replace his ass in ther?? Like today??!!

[Nathan James]

Sen. Smith, who represents my neighborhood of St. Albans, had the courage to support the gay-marriage initiative, despite the fact that St. Albans is both highly conservative and homophobic. My hat is off to him for that!

Contrast this with Sen. Addabbo, who is a darling of white Queens and contrary to his remarks today, campaigned on a platform which included support fot LGBT issues. When Addabbo was running for the Senate, he made a point of courting gay benefactors such as Gill, and appeared at Queens Pride.

I urge all New Yorkers who read Rod 2.0 to remember the "Discrimin-8" Democrats in Republicans' clothes who voted against us on this critical human-rights issue. rod has posted their names on this blog, and all of them are up for re-election in 2010, except for Hiram Monserrate, who may no longer be serving as a Senator by then.

[Chris Cruz]

This man is despicable. He campaigned on our issues and turned out to be yet another turncoat.

You will be primaried, Joey. mark my words.

[Pat Lewis]

The only good thing that came from Addabbo's vote against the Gay Marriage bill is that all of us will vote him out of office next term! If people can votte against basic civil rights for everyone, than we must use the action of "an eye for an eye," I say. It's the only thing that bigots understand.

[Mad Professah]

The general election is 9 or 11 months away.Y'all have late primaries in NYS (September, right?). I think he should be taken out in a primary with another Democrat who commits to voting for marriage equality and other issues of importance to the district.

[Youngmaid]

Addabbo needs to return the money he received from LGBT Organizations. He did not serve the cause to any LGBT's in NY, including his district. He should return the Money now!

[libhomo]

There's nothing new about the HRC giving money to homophobic politicians. The queer community needs to set up an alternative political action committee to the HRC which actually cares about the queer community.

[dt]

This is a primary reason why the LGBT community has to be more careful about who we throw our support behind and whose pockets are money is being placed in. Year in year out we have folks appealing to us, saying they're on our side, they work for us too, they'll champion our causes and fight for us and time and time again they throw us away AFTER they've gotten in office and AFTER they got all the money they could out of us. We have to start picking people who have a proven credible history of support for our community and stop supporting people who won't support as as well.