There are three openly gay members of Congress, innumerable closeted ones, and then there is Mark Foley. The West Palm Beach Republican exists in a kind of netherworld, neither confirming nor denying questions of his sexual orientation that have circulated for more than a decade.
The stories are going around again because many observers see him as a leading candidate for the Florida Senate seat that comes up in 2004. Incumbent Bob Graham recently had heart surgery and may not run for reelection. One interesting thing this time around is how the Republican establishment, from Gov. Jeb Bush's political machine to the never gay friendly House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is effusive in their support of Foley.
The current talk began in late April while the flap over Sen. Rick Santorum's comments on gays still raged. Buddy Nevins, a political columnist at the Sun-Sentinel, the leading newspaper in his district, wrote that Foley's bid for the Senate might not survive a Republican primary because of his voting record on gay rights.
On May 8, the alternative weekly New Times carried a lengthy article on the column and 'the avoidance of that giant, pink elephant in the room,' the talk that Foley is gay. It detailed how Foley was 'outed' in the gay press in 1996 when he voted for the antigay Defense of Marriage Act [which breezed through the House 342-57 with the support of then-President Bill Clinton], but the mainstream press did not touch the story.
Foley called a news conference on May 22 to denounce the swirling talk of his private life as 'revolting and unforgivable ... . Elected officials, even those who run for the United States Senate, must have some level of privacy.' When asked if he was gay, he said, 'That's the kind of question that I do think is highly inappropriate.'
He tried to pin the blame on 'a number of Democratic activists [who] have taken it upon themselves to push rumors about me ... . They don't want me to run or have to run against me.' While there was some credibility to the charge, social conservatives within his own party also were heavily working the rumor mill, and for similar reasons.
Foley, 48, has been in politics for 25 years, winning a succession of higher offices along the way. He has spent the last 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives where he sits on the powerful Ways and Means committee and serves in the Republican leadership as a deputy whip.
His politics straddle a moderate-conservative line; garnering high but often less than 100% ratings from groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Conservative Union. The socially conservative Family Research Council has rated him 67%, the lowest of any Florida Republican, while the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has given him 100%.
Foley earned HRC's rating through his advocacy on AIDS issues and his support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). He played a leading role in getting potentially antigay provisions pulled from the faith-based initiative legislation.
That record, his high profile in the expensive south Florida media market, and more than $2 million in the bank make Foley a formidable candidate, if he can just get over the hurdle of the Republican primary where social conservatives have a strong voice.
The other leading candidate is former Rep Bill McCollum, the Party's Senate nominee in 2002, who is more conservative. However, McCollum ran a lackluster campaign the last time around, leaving many to believe he cannot win. And his modest support on some gay issues leaves him tainted in the eyes of some reactionary true believers; they would much prefer a rabid social conservative like Rep. Dave Weldon. A three-way race would make it easier for Foley.
Florida and national Republican see Foley as their best chance to take that Senate seat. In the Machiavellian world of politics, it is possible that Gov. Bush has encouraged McCollum in his seemingly half-hearted efforts of a campaign as a way of discouraging a more conservative opponent to Foley who might fracture the party in a primary and produce a weaker candidate for the general election.
Perhaps Foley's assertion of privacy, a tacit admission that he is gay but not a declaration that he is GAY, is the way to go. If sexual orientation should be irrelevant to job performance, as many believe it should be, then Foley's version of don't ask, don't tell may make sense both personally and politically.
