The Human Rights Campaign has established a new group whose goal is to defeat state legislators who opposed marriage equality, and they've hired Brian Ellner, who was shut out of the head position at the Empire State Pride Agenda just recently, to head it, the NYT reports:
"Brian Ellner, who until this week worked for the New York City Department of Education, will oversee the Campaign for New York Marriage, which is to be financed by the Human Rights Campaign, a lobbying group for gay rights based in Washington.
Mr. Ellner's appointment will be announced by the group on Friday. It represents a vindication of sorts for Mr. Ellner, who was the top candidate to run the state's leading gay rights group last month. He abruptly withdrew from consideration after some gay advocates questioned his links to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a major donor to the Republican Party.
'I view this as an opportunity to build on solid work that has come before, and strengthen and expand the coalition that is necessary to secure marriage equality,' Mr. Ellner said in an interview."
The HRC campaign's goal mirror those of philanthropist Tim Gill's Fight Back PAC, which launched in February and has been targeting New York lawmakers, like ousted state senator Hiram Monserrate, since that time:
"The campaign's organizers said they would work closely with several existing efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, including the Empire State Pride Agenda and Fight Back New York."
