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Steve Gunderson First elected in 1980, Steve Gunderson represented his rural Wisconsin district for 16 years. But in 1994, The New York Times Magazine outed him, exposing his secret gay lifestyle and his live-in lover. Shortly afterwards he announced he wouldn't run again in 1996. But the dairy farmers in his district didn't want him to retire. They raised cows, so they didn't care whose teats he was yanking. Besides, he was the third-ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee. And with the committee chairman running for the Senate, and with the second-ranking guy dead and buried, Steve was next in line to take over. So he said he'd run again as long as there was no primary opposition. Unfortunately, he did get an opponent, so he wouldn't file. But folks still wanted him, so that summer they began a write-in campaign for him. Then Newt Gingrich called to tell Steve that conservative activist/homophobe Paul Weyrich was launching a fund-raising effort to defeat him, so Steve called it quits. But he didn't endorse the Republican nominee, either. The guy was in bed with the Christian Coalition, so he lost. Now it's a Democratic seat. |
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