Meet the Gay Candidates running for Congress

While we are being hit with stories about DADT, Tea Party, Terry Jones and Lady Gaga, I wanted to take this time to highlight 2 gay candidates running for Congress.

David Cicilline and Steve Pougnet.

Here's some info about them from Edge on the Net:

In Rhode Island, Cicilline is the best known and best-funded candidate in Tuesday’s four-way Democratic primary, having raised more than $1.3 million, about three times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival and of the leading Republican.

He had about $450,000 in his account as of August, according to federal filings, after going on a TV ad spending spree with commercials on seniors and jobs - an important issue in Rhode Island, which had the fourth-worst unemployment rate in the country in July at 11.9 percent. The expected Republican candidate, state Rep. John Loughlin, had just $67,000 in his campaign account. There have been no reliable polls in the race.

Kennedy has for eight terms represented the 1st District, which stretches from blue-collar communities around Providence in the north to the blue-blooded seaside mansions of Newport in the south. Cicilline’s sexual orientation has not been an issue in the race so far, and voters don’t seem to care. Cicilline, who is single, has been attacked by his opponents, but for his record as mayor, not his personal life.

"People are really focused on the issues that are important in their own lives, and what they think the individuals running for Congress can do to respond to the urgent challenges that their families are facing," Cicilline said in an interview. "I think the sexual orientation of candidates in this race, including mine, have been irrelevant to voters, and I think that’s progress."

Pougnet married his longtime partner in 2008, after same-sex marriage was legalized in California but before it was banned by the ballot initiative Proposition 8.

Since 2007, he’s been mayor of Palm Springs, which has a large gay population, and he’s mounting the most serious challenge yet to Bono Mack, who has for 12 years represented the 45th District in California’s Inland Empire, a huge district that stretches from the Arizona border nearly to Los Angeles.

Pougnet had raised more than $1.2 million as of the end of June to Bono Mack’s $1.7 million. That makes Pougnet her best-funded challenger ever. He launched his first TV ad last week in which he says Bono Mack "isn’t getting the job done" on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs and foreclosures.

I wish these guys luck.