Virginia Congressman accused of urging Republicans not to fund gay candidates
Virginia Representative Randy Forbes is under fire for allegedly urging his Republican Party colleagues not to support gay congressional candidates.
According to US blog Politico, several sources on Capitol Hill say Mr Forbes tried to prevent the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) from supporting gay candidates.
At present, Republicans in the House of Representatives have two gay candidates for 2014.
Richard Tisei will be running again in north-eastern Massachusetts after losing out to Democratic Representative John Tierney in 2012 while Carl DeMaio, a former city councilman will be representing San Diago in the forthcoming elections.
On Wednesday, Mr Forbes told Politico that he thinks “GOP leaders can do whatever they want to do,” in terms of giving money to gay candidates.
Asked whether he would have a problem with the NRCC donating money to Mr DeMaio, Mr Forbes said: “That’s a little different situation.”
“I don’t think they’ve done that yet,” he added.
When asked if he would withhold political contributions to the NRCC if they backed Mr DeMaio, Mr Forbes replied: “I’m not going to be hypothetical on what we would or wouldn’t do at this particular point in time because you’ve got a lot of scenarios. I don’t think we’ve had primaries and nominations to nominate people. So I don’t want to prejudge.”
Both Mr Tisei and Mr DeMaio were recipients of financial support from House Republicans in the past as the NRCC assisted Mr Tisei with his campaign in 2012.
Mr DeMaio got support from the political arm of House Majority leader Eric Cantor, in the form of $10,000 in June while Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy provided $5,000 in the same month.
