Out in the GOP Two local candidates are openly gay and openly Republican. And you thought never the two would meet BY TONY GIAMPETRUZZI

They’re against taxes. They support affordable housing. They loathe big government. They are Steven Scharf, running against Parksider Herb Adams for the state House of Representatives, and David Babin, who’s taking on Ethan Strimling for state Senate. Yep — they are both Republicans.

And, forgive me for objectifying, but did I mention that they are both openly gay?

Unabashedly so, actually. In fact, they both assert that they have been welcomed into the party with open arms. Of course, the idea of gay legislators is nothing new — I’ve been told there are lots of gay legislators in Maine . . . some of them are even out of the closet. But, as yet, no Republicans.

Both of these guys are running in districts that, by all measures, are heavily populated by gays and lesbians, but neither Babin nor Scharf want your vote simply because of their sexual orientation, nor do they expect it. They both believe that common sense will prevail and people will vote for them on the issues.

Regardless of how open-minded you are, openly gay Republican politicians still have to be considered a curiosity — particularly this year when their ringleader, George Bush, sold them down the river, fanatically making a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage a priority during wartime. And, although gay GOPers would disagree, it’s pretty obvious that most politicians who are anti-gay have a big R after their name.

Still, this breed of politicos is active and well organized. They even have their own national group, the Log Cabin Republicans (neither Babin nor Scharf is a member), who, incidentally, decided to yank their support for Bush in this election.

So, how does a gay person become a Republican? According to both Babin and Scharf, there are a lot more of them out there than conventional wisdom would have you believe. Babin, who grew up in Portland, spent 25 years in New York City working with a number of AIDS organizations, hates big government and high taxes. It’s as simple as that. Oh, and his mom was a Republican, as well. Scharf, who coincidently lived in the Big Apple for 22 years before returning to Maine with his database-consulting firm four years ago, feels pretty much the same way.

Not surprisingly, neither candidate got an endorsement from Equality Maine — Strimling has been good to gays and he’s an incumbent. Same with Adams.

But should you, dear voter, take a closer look at what makes these two tick?

Phoenix: People like you always fascinate me. Why Republican?

Babin: I’ve always been a Republican.

Scharf: Yep. Always been a Republican. I’m a Republican because of fiscal issues. I support the fiscal politics of the Republican Party. So, it’s a matter of what your priorities are, and my priority is that we need to have strong fiscal Republican policies.

Babin: Same here. Less taxes, smaller government. The fundamentals of self-responsibility always seem to have a more optimistic message for me. And, my mother was a Republican, so there’s that influence as well.

Phoenix: What’s Ethan Strimling doing wrong that you would make right?

Babin: When it comes to taxes, when it comes to supporting small businesses, those are the areas. The majority of our businesses are small businesses and they are taxed too high. We don’t make it easy for business or industry in Portland or the state — we’re driving industry out of the state, his tax plan is killing us. He promotes raising the sales tax; he promotes widening the margin of what is taxed. Again, when it comes to the role of government, Ethan and I come from different planets.

Phoenix: What’s Herb doing wrong?

Scharf: I’m not running against Herb, I’m running because I want to change fiscal policy in the state of Maine. It just so happens that Herb Adams is in my district. We need to change fiscal policy in the state of Maine and with Democrats in office, it’s not going to change.

Phoenix: Are you miffed that Equality Maine overlooked both of you?

Scharf: Well, Dave came into the race right after they needed forms for endorsement, so they didn’t look at him at all. In my race it’s totally different [Jeff Spencer, a Green, is also in the running]. All three candidates submitted forms to Equality Maine, and I was not endorsed. Mr. Spencer and I actually went to the meeting, while Herb had someone attend on behalf of him. They chose to endorse Herb because he’s an incumbent and they have a policy of endorsing incumbents as long as they are with them on the issues. But, since all three candidates are with them on the issues, I think it would have been more appropriate for them to endorse the gay candidate.

Phoenix: So, where are you on the issues? Gay marriage?

Scharf: I support gay marriage, I’ve always supported gay marriage even before the gay establishment supported gay marriage and fought for it.

Babin: I support civil unions with all the same protections and rights, but I don’t support same-sex marriage. I think marriage is for a man and a woman. It’s a heterosexual institution. I’m a homosexual man, I’ve been with my partner for 23 years, and I don’t need a heterosexual label on my relationship to sanctify it. I object to homosexuals using the terms "wife" and "husband." I don’t feel that’s part of my culture and I don’t want it to interfere with my culture. You know, I don’t see why it has to be one or the other. I don’t know why heterosexuals can’t have their marriage and that gay people can’t have their own rites of passage. The Stonewall riots were in 1969 . . . if we haven’t developed our own rites of passage by now, when are we going to do it? When are we going to start?

Phoenix: You both talk about smaller government — what about health care, funding for HIV programs for instance?

Scharf: Small government has no effect on limiting funding for programs related to HIV. First of all, I don’t think the state spends very much money on that. It’s money that’s coming from the federal government and we’re running for state government, so it’s essentially not an issue for us. Dirigo, on the other hand, is a different matter. The Dirigo Heath Plan is not going to work. What we need is more competition in the marketplace. It’s what drives down prices. There are two things: the cost of health care and the cost of premiums to buy health care. We need to bring down the costs of both. That’s only going to happen with competition in the marketplace.

Babin: I also believe if we had a healthier tax climate in the state and we attracted business and industry and jobs and small businesses were doing better, then they could take care of their own employees. I don’t think that health care should be handled by the state. Government has no place managing health care. Dirigo is too expensive and unrealistic and who knows what it will develop into.

Scharf: And I’d point out that Ethan said the exact same thing, that government should not be managing health care, he was quoted on Channel 13 saying that two years ago.