(Community Matters) Doggett dogged by perceived snub of gay judge (if you can’t link, copied at bottom)
additionally: Congressman Doggett only reluctantly supported the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, doing so only after months of lobbying by straight & LGBT supporters (including Atticus Circle). He refuses to co-sponsor the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and he does not support marriage equality – not only politically, but he personally objects. There was never intimidation deployed in attempting to persuade Congressman Doggett to support US Magistrate Robert Pitman. I became involved months after he refused to even meet with Judge Pitman. Lloyd originally said he had to support a Hispanic for the position, then said he had to support someone from San Antonio. After both, he recruited a straight Anglo Austinite to apply for the position – all while refusing to even interview Robert Pitman, a former acting US Attorney, deputy US Attorney and the highest rated Travis County judge in both 2009 and 2010.
Lloyd lacks the courage to openly support an LGBT nominee, to co-sponsor the repeal of DOMA and to stand up for full LGBT equality.
I’ve previously supported Lloyd financially &/or by block walking in everyone of his races for US Congress. I’ve even publicly applauded his – however reluctantly he got there – eventual support for ENDA, DA/DT and federal benefits. And, after 16 years in office (passing only 3 bills) it’s time for a new generation of political leader.
- Thursday, 04 August 2011 01:57 Gilbert Garcia
Most of the factors working against Lloyd Doggett in his congressional race against state Rep. Joaquín Castro are out of his control: He’s not young, he’s not Latino, and he didn’t grow up in San Anto.
At least one grievance against Doggett, however, concerns something very much under his control, and it’s already starting to bite him in the race for the Democratic nomination in the new 35th Congressional District. A well-connected Austin gay activist is resentful over Doggett’s unwillingness to support Robert Pitman, an openly gay Austin magistrate judge, for the position of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, which includes San Antonio. The political awkwardness of the situation only intensified in June when President Barack Obama disregarded the recommendations of the Texas Democratic House delegation chaired by Doggett, and nominated Pitman for the post.
Pitman is a career prosecutor who already has a brief stint as acting U.S. attorney for the Western District under his belt. By all accounts, his record is exemplary, and he earned the highest score among Austin judges in a 2009 Austin Bar Association judicial evaluation poll. Over the last two-and-a-half years, Pitman has been championed for the U.S. attorney post by some members of the Austin gay and lesbian community, but Doggett declined to include him in a list of suggested nominees the Texas Democratic delegation sent to Obama.
The most prominent and impassioned Pitman advocate has been Eugene Sepulveda, a formidable Democratic fundraiser and CEO of Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas. Sepulveda is uniquely skilled at pooling a large number of campaign contributions for political races, a practice known as bundling. In fact, he’s already bundled more than $500,000 for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Sepulveda says Doggett’s perceived snub of Pitman has become a “real issue” for gay activists, but adds that the LGBT community is divided about Doggett. “Most haven’t worked with him to further gay and lesbian equality legislation,” he says. “And if you haven’t, you presume that he’s supportive. But those that are aware of what it took to get him there or have dealt with him on other gay and lesbian equality issues do not support him.”
Despite Doggett’s reputation as a never-say-die progressive warrior, his LGBT critics argue that during the Austin congressman’s 16 years on Capitol Hill, he has shown a curious reluctance to put himself out front as an advocate for gay causes. They say that for years Doggett resisted calls from Austin gay activists that he co-sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and only came around after a disgruntled St. Edwards University student refused to shake his hand at a graduation ceremony. They add that Pitman made numerous attempts to contact Doggett over the last two-and-a-half years about the U.S. attorney post, but Doggett did not return his calls.
In a way, it’s ironic that Doggett finds himself in this position. In 1984, when he won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, his Republican opponent, Phil Gramm, repeatedly blasted him for supporting gay rights legislation, and even ran radio ads expressing disgust that a Doggett fundraiser took place at a gay bar and featured a male strip show. In fact, Doggett took so much heat from Gramm that some in the Austin LGBT community wonder whether that losing campaign left him skittish about connecting himself too closely to gay causes.
Doggett adamantly defends his record and says any suggestion that he’s backed away from his commitment to gay rights is “an outrageous slur.” He describes Pitman as a fine judge, but says the Democratic delegation simply elected to go with other candidates, and he expresses frustration that the Obama administration ignored the delegation’s recommendations.
Generally, home-state senators take the lead in recommending U.S. attorney hopefuls to the president, but when both of those senators are from the president’s opposition party, the president usually gives the final say to his own party’s House delegation.
On March 11, 2009, Doggett and the Texas Democratic House delegation recommended three candidates – San Antonio City Attorney Michael Bernard, San Antonio defense lawyer Michael McCrum, and Travis County Attorney David Escamilla – to Obama for the Western District post. In a statement released that same month, Obama said that he would not nominate any U.S. attorney candidate “unless that person has the confirmed support of the Texas Democratic delegation.”
Doggett personally leaned toward fellow Austinite Escamilla, but in October 2009, the members of the Democratic delegation settled on McCrum as their consensus choice. Meanwhile, the state’s two Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, confounded political orthodoxy – and the social conservatives within their own party – by making the openly gay Pitman one of their two recommendations (along with McCrum).
Obama took so long to make a decision that an exasperated McCrum withdrew his name from consideration last October. Finally, five weeks ago, the president announced that he was going with Pitman.
“The president dragged out this process in a manner that was unfair to (McCrum),” Doggett says. “The White House essentially breached its agreement (with Texas Democrats).”
Doggett’s frustration over Obama’s handling of the selection process is shared by other members of the delegation, including San Antonio’s Charlie Gonzalez, who told the Express-News in June that the long, slow nature of the nomination process was “totally and completely unnecessary.”
Sepulveda has already committed to being a major fundraiser for Castro in the District 35 race, and says he’ll make his case to Austin’s Stonewall Democrats on behalf of Castro. Doggett acknowledges that Sepulveda is a fundraising force, but says he has no regrets over disregarding Sepulveda’s advocacy for Pitman.
“I don’t yield to intimidation,” Doggett says.
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