Los Angeles' top Democratic Party guy is a former Clinton supporter whose just wild for Barack

BY CHRISTOPHER LISOTTA

The Chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Eric Bauman represents more than two million Democrats, the largest county organization in the country. An influential senior staffer in former Gov. Grey Davis' administration, Bauman is working to unite his party around its presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama. He's also hoping for a title change himself, since Bauman has announced he's running for the chair of the California Democratic Party, which would make him the first openly gay man to hold that position.

FRONTIERS: How is the party coming together after the primaries?

ERIC BAUMAN: Let's start off with a basic fact—the people of the United States of America are beyond ready for a change. There is absolutely nothing about electing a man who would be little more than a third term of George Bush that can or should excite any American who still has their wits about them. For LGBT Americans, the difference between a Barack Obama and a John McCain is the difference between day and night. Someone on the Republican side who are unmitigated apologists for the Republican right, regardless of the affect on their lives or anyone else's, those people are trying to cling to the fantasy that because McCain does not support the Federal Marriage Amendment, that somehow makes him current on LGBT issues. Let us be very clear about John McCain; John McCain, wonderful man he may be, is a conservative Republican. It is true that he did not support a Federal Marriage Amendment, but he didn't support it because he's a state's rights guy, and he absolutely believes every state can and should limit the right for same-sex couples to get married. Having said that, from the very beginning of the presidential race when both sides had a dozen contenders, it was clear from day one that any one of the Democratic contenders for president would have been a breath of fresh air, a renaissance, the beginning of a different light for a new day for LGBT Americans. I was personally a supporter of Sen. Clinton's because among other reasons, I have a many years-long relationship with the Clintons. I have always said from day one I would support proudly any one of the Democratic candidates for president, whoever earns the nomination. And in the end Sen. Obama is that person.

Democrats have emotional primary fights. The Gov. Howard Dean versus Sen. John Kerry in 2004 was an emotional primary. Is this par for the course?

Every presidential race is unique. We have never presented America the opportunity to have a choice between electing a woman president and an African-American president. For the depths of people's emotions, the opportunity for people for the first time to seriously contemplate an African-American as the next occupant of the White House, a woman as the next occupant of the White House, is different.

Is Obama/Clinton the ticket, or is it more complicated than that?

The nominee of the Democratic Party will choose a person to be his running mate that works for him, that fills a need for him, that is simpatico with him. Whether that's somebody like Hillary Clinton, or a midwestern senator or governor, a former southern senator, that's a choice the nominee gets to make.

Will California's marriage decision become an issue in the election?

Of course it will!

Will it be different from the marriage amendments passed in other states in 2004?

Look, the first thing is the largest state in the United States of America just had its Supreme Court rule that to discriminate against a couple based on the gender of its two partners is unconstitutional. For people whose belief system is deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian religions, particularly of a fundamentalist nature, that is deeply troubling. For the cynics in the Republican and conservative political leadership, it's opportunity. You can be rest assured that every chance that they can get to show pictures of two men wearing trench coats hiding in the shadows trying to wave their children over, they will. They will do everything they can to say the Supreme Court ruling is what making Barack Obama President of the United States represents for our nation. Public opinion has moved, not far enough, but it has moved. Furthermore we have had marriage in Massachusetts, and civil unions in Vermont, and domestic partnerships in California and the fact that they have not caused heterosexual marriages to implode all across the nation also undermines them. The key factor in this is voters 30 and under, by overwhelming percentages, believe gay people should be allowed to marry. Our difficulty is voters 65 and over. And we have to combat that, we have to defeat that initiative on the ballot. For us to not allow this to become the Swift Boat of 2008, we have to be respectful of people's opinions, but we have to speak out, we have to speak loud, we have to speak strong, we have to speak proud.