Nastygram on gay marriage

You may have heard or read about the campaign treasurer for a Republican Assembly candidate in Oshkosh who resigned over the negative campaign being run against the Democrat, Gordon Hintz.

Here is the lie-filled, mean-spirited piece of mail that triggered it.

The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported:

Republican Assembly candidate Julie Pung Leschke's campaign treasurer has resigned, citing her discomfort with the flow of outside money and negative ads from interest groups in the campaign for the 54th Assembly District.

"I'm not resigning to try to hurt Julie, I'm resigning to make a statement about how nasty this process is. I think voters deserve better than that," former treasurer Robin Makar said.

Makar said she resigned quietly last week but decided on Monday to resign publicly after a mailer came out from Wisconsin Family Action suggesting that the election of Pung Leschke's opponent, Democrat Gordon Hintz, would open the door to the legalization of gay marriage in Wisconsin.

"I saw that postcard and it was just a lie. I saw that it was such a political ploy not just to damage Gordon and damage this amendment -- that is really near to my heart, I so believe it's wrong," Makar said. "The combination of two things, being such a lie and it being about something I feel so strongly about, I can't be quiet about stepping away from this."

Wisconsin Family Action is the lobbying arm of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, the group leading the charge for passage of the anti-gay amendment. Its leader, Juliane Appling, has warned that if the amendment doesn't pass we'll soon be legalizing polygamy and God only knows what else. If you listen to hear, and read the piece of mail from her group, you wouldn't know that marriage in Wisconsin is already limited to one man and one woman -- or that there is a far-reaching second sentence on civil unions that could do far more damage than any liberal activist judge. Now the group is not only misleading voters about the amendment, but trying to use it to defeat candidates who oppose it.