Reject Referendum 71 Organizers Tucking Tail

Reject Referendum 71 Organizers Keeping Media At A Distance
Campaign manager says volunteers have been subject to ongoing harassment and intimidation efforts directed toward Reject R-71 supporters.

Q13 FOX News Online Web Reporter
8:22 PM PST, November 3, 2009



EVERETT - Organizers of the Reject Referendum 71 Campaign have banned all newspaper, radio and television reporters, cameras, and microphones from their election headquarters tonight -- to make sure everyone involved in the campaign are safe from harassment.

In the media room of the Holiday Inn in Everett, it's so quiet you could hear a pin drop. That's because the spot where the Reject Referendum 71 campaign is holding its election night party is down a long hallway away from where organizers are asking the media to congregate.

Early returns show voters are narrowly approving the measure, which would affirm Washington state's new "Everything But Marriage" law, passed by lawmakers and signed by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire last year.

With about 40 percent of the expected vote counted Tuesday night, Referendum 71 was leading 52 percent to 47 percent.

Pastor Ken Hutcherson of the Antioch Bible Church has been actively involved in the Reject 71 campaign, and he hinted tonight that he and other campaign organizers are prepared to continue their battle against the law again next year, if voters approve it.

"We've got to get rid of the cobra before it gets out of the cage," Hutcherson said, suggesting that the battle over the state's domestic partnership law may not be over. The law grants registered domestic partners additional state-granted rights currently given only to married couples.

The expanded law would add benefits, such as the right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner, and rights related to adoption, child custody and child support.

Supporters of the Reject 71 campaign held their election night headquarters behind closed doors at an "invitation only" party -- due to "ongoing harassment and intimidation efforts directed toward Reject R-71 supporters," Campaign Manager Larry Stickney writes in a news release.

Campaign organizers say they are concerned about reporting that may include people's names. The fear is they could become targets of harassment. Stickney says the harassment has increased over the last 24 to 48 hours.

"One of our rally attendents had her photgraph appear and had her name appear in one of the newspapers, and she immediately ended up on one of the homosexual activist blogs," Stickney told Q13 Fox outside the door of the campaign's party.

Inside the party room (as seen from the door, which was later shut tight), a local television news report was running on the large screen and a children's choir -- dressed in white shirts with red vests -- were singing "God Bless America."

Stickney says one woman who was at a Reject 71 rally and was featured in the news ended up with her name on a website run by someone not supportive of their effort.

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Lol now call me crazy, but that doesn't really sound like harrassment, that sounds like informed debate based on someone else's opinion that has now become a matter of public vote. Perhaps if the organizers of Reject 71 don't like being talked about and scrutinized, perhaps they should keep their views amongst themselves rather then have those views presented as an issue to be voted on by members of the public, lol just a thought.