Romney’s stance puts him in a tough spot between key donors and his party’s base. Donors split with Mitt on gay marriage

Mitt Romney’s opposition to gay marriage, which helped endear him to conservative activists during the dog days of the presidential primary, puts him at odds with three of his most prominent donors, all of whom helped fund a successful effort to legalize same-sex nuptials in New York last year.

Paul Singer, Dan Loeb and Cliff Asness — three hedge fund managers and major players in donor circles — each cut six-figure checks toward the landmark effort to legalize gay marriage in New York.


Singer, the intensely-private head of Elliott Associates, has been especially active in donating to groups aimed at legalizing gay marriage in different states over the last five years, concurrent with his rise as one of the Republican party’s mot prominent bundlers and donors to party committees. According to a recent New York Times story, Singer has donated $8 million to pro-gay marriage efforts since 2007.

He’s also helped raise more than $1 million for Romney’s campaign, as well as donated another $1 million to the super PAC supporting the all-but-assured Republican nominee.

The New York moneymen and some other Republican movers-and-shakers — such as former George W. Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, who came out two years ago and is now raising money from a broad swath of donors to push for gay marriage but who hasn’t made a presidential campaign endorsement — are at odds with Romney, who signed a pledge proffered by the conservative National Organization for Marriage promising to, among other things, support “sending a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification.”

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Officials at NOM endorsed Romney Wednesday morning, within hours of Rick Santorum’s departure from the race. And while both political sides agree that the general election will most likely hinge almost exclusively on the economy, Romney’s position on gay marriage puts him in a difficult spot between some key donors and his party’s base.

It also puts Romney at odds with where the general electorate has been heading on the issue — in 2004, a majority of the country did not want to see gay marriage legalized. But in a Washington Post/ABC News poll last month, 52 percent of voters said it should be legal, while 43 percent said it should be illegal. Once seen as strictly a side issue, gay marriage has become much more central to the political conversation over the last few years.

Donors, as one Republican insider put it, are “often a reflection of where the public attitudes are,” if not indicative of the opinions of the base of either party.

Romney’s divide from some of his donors could become a point of tension if President Barack Obama vocalizes support for same-sex marriage, as a number of gay activists are urging him to do before the November election. Right now, Romney and Obama both oppose gay marriage; the president has said his views are “evolving,”

“Mitt Romney is where President Obama is on this issue,” a Republican backer of the likely nominee said.

In the general election, the former Massachusetts governor may try to subtly moderate some of the more conservative stands he has taken over the years in order to make himself more palatable to GOP primary voters.

For instance, his language in one of the debates before the New Hampshire primary in January, while opposed to gay marriage, was less heated in its rhetoric.

To say that marriage is something other than the relationship between a man and a woman, I think, is a mistake,” Romney said. “And, the reason for that is not that we want to discriminate against people or to suggest that gay couples are not just as loving and can’t also raise children well. But, it is instead a recognition that, for society as a whole, that the nation presumably will be better off if children are raised in a setting where there is a male and a female. “

But if he does pivot on the issue beyond a rhetorical shift, Romney risks being called out for flip-flopping, a charge that has landed with resonance during two presidential runs on things like abortion rights and health care.

“If I were Obama, I would come out in favor of gay marriage before the election,” said Chris Barron, co-founder of the conservative group GOProud, adding that it could be a way for the president to motivate his base, especially younger voters. “It’s been pretty clear over the last few months that the Obama campaign team has enjoyed (success) every time the conversation has gone to social issues….these social issues, these wedge issues, can maybe for the first time ever work the opposite way.”

It’s unclear whether Singer, Loeb or Asness have approached Romney on the issue, on which the former Massachusetts governor has said repeatedly he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Singer, through an adviser, would not comment. Asness also declined comment through a spokesman, who noted that it was possible for a candidate and a donor to disagree on specific issues. Mehlman also declined comment on the issue.

The Romney campaign didn’t respond to repeated emails. And there is no question that the Romney donor base is united in disliking Obama’s fiscal policies, and hoping to see him unseated — a goal that will be the focus of the campaign.

Some Romney supporters argue that it’s better for gay-marriage supporters to ensure people like Singer get a place in the candidate’s circle to advocate for the issue. And others suggest that, while Romney has made overtures toward the conservative wing of the party, no one takes him for a stalwart on the issue.

“Nobody believes he’s really going to” go through with a constitutional amendment to insist on traditional marriage, said one supporter. Others noted that he voiced support for gay rights in his 1994 Senate run against Ted Kennedy.

Still, Romney’s language around gay marriage at certain points has rankled Barron and others. During a speech Romney delivered at the conservative CPAC confab in February, the former governor championed his role in preventing gay marriages when he said he kept the Bay State from becoming “the Las Vegas of gay marriages.” His supporters who favor gay marriage were deeply troubled by the line, multiple sources said — which he used on the stump after CPAC, but not for long.

“It was a line that was completely and totally gratuitous,” said Barron. “It’s one thing for Gov. Romney to say he’s against marriage equlity, that’s fine. It’s another thing to make it seem sleazy and tawdry, and that’s exactly what that line was attempting to do.”

“After his [CPAC] speech I said to Gov. Romney, because he had a very strong speech about economic growth, creation of jobs, rebuilding the American dream — all things that resonate with not just conservatives, but any Americans frankly, which those were attractive issues for any election campaign,” said R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. “However I did say to him, your comments regarding marriage are not only not helpful but can be distracting from the campaign.”

The NOM pledge could cause the most headaches for Romney in the general election. Some speculated that as the general election gets underway, Romney would gradually pivot away from the pledge as he seeks to make himself attract to independent, swing voters. That could prove problematic as he tries to soothe conservatives and ensure they turn out at sufficient levels in the fall.

NOM President Brian Brown told POLITICO that Romney “signed NOM’s marriage pledge very early and was enthusiastic in his support. He’s been very clear in the debates of his position on tradition marriage. It’s a strong pledge, a strong statement and it’s time for people who believe that marriage is a union between one man and one woman to unite. Just because some donors may have a different view, doesn’t mean that’s going to have any effect at all.”

He added, “Somewhere around 80 percent of Republicans believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

The pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign immediately highlighted Romney’s backing by NOM on Wednesday, and HRC spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz highlighted the polling numbers on gay marriage.

“Certainly Mitt Romney aligning himself with the National Organization for Marriage puts him starkly on the fringe of this issue. NOM is one of the leading anti-gay voices in the country, and really represents a small minority of opinion on the issue,” he said. “It shows how far out of step Romney actually is — not only is he opposed to the majority of Americans, now it appears he is opposed to part of his base.”

But conservatives warned of dire consequences if Romney tries to back away from the pledge.

“Romney is well aware of the disastrous, long-lasting impact on the Republican Party that occurs when Republican presidents break pledges,” said conservative strategist Keith Appell, who represents NOM. “Conservatives will take him at his word with regard to the pledges he has made, be it repealing Obamacare or preserving and protecting marriage between one man and one woman.”

“President Bush’s breaking of his tax pledge cost the Republicans the White House for 8 years and led directly to the largest tax increase in history, a two-decade battle over socialized medicine, and a stained blue dress,” Appel warned

The Log Cabin GOP’s Cooper argued that Romney will have to think about the “cost-benefit analysis” of the NOM backing.

“It’s not a winner,” he said.

Republican Richard Tisei — an openly gay ex-Massachusetts state legislator who is running for Congress and for whom Mehlman is fundraising — declined to rap Romney for his stand, and said that they had disagreed on some issues, and gotten along on others, while both were in elected office.

“Within the party there’s been an acknowledgment, particularly among younger voters that there are differences within the party on the way gay marriage is viewed,” he said, adding that it’s “important, I think, for equality issues in general to have issues [advocated for] on both sides of the aisle.”

“I do think as a party right now we should all be focusing on the issues that concern everyone,” he said. “No matter what your sexuality, the direction of the economy is what” people are focused on now.