RENWL

Executives doing what they do best: Networking. Photo from the movie American Psycho

We’ve been meaning to get to this. And we know you’ve been waiting with halted breath. A couple of weeks ago RE 2010’s State Advisory Council (SAC) voted on the five individuals who they’ve chosen to serve as the campaign’s Executive Committee. We mentioned this event in an earlier post, Truthandhope.org Starts Own 2010 Marriage Equality Campaign; Says Existing Effort Doesn’t Support Grassroots.

But let’s talk about this for a sec.’ “Executive.” That—that word. It sounds so so—-Sex In The City-ish for some reason.  Like a Patrick Nagle portrait. Very ‘80s and Wall Street that word. Remember the movie American Psycho? Crazed. Dominant. Bloodthirsty evil coldblooded calculating white man in $600 dollar Armani suits—-with slicked back gelled hair and a yen for Whitney Houston and clueless blondes. We like that. It’s kinky. The word. Executive. Good name for a ruling committee of white folks, guys. Good call.

Now exactly what’s the executive committee’s role in all this we wonder.  We took at look at our pdf cheatsheet of the Davis Plan. But it didn’t really outline the duties of such marriage equality political royalty. We’ll just surmise that the executive committee tells people what to do. And they do it. Period. Fair enough.  Sounds like a nice faux grassroots set up with anointed lords and gilded gold scepters to boot no doubt—but hey—who’s criticizing? So let’s meet the five-headed monster, shall we?

John Henning

That sexy bigfoot beast. Executive Director of Love Honor Cherish—Henning’s been hankering to become the king of somethin’ else for quite awhile now. He finally got his wish. We gleaned his bio from the RE 2010 Web site. Here’s what they have to say about John John (hear our girlish giggles in the background):

Long-time marriage equality advocate, John Henning is the Executive Director and a co-founder of Love Honor Cherish(LHC), one of the leading proponents of a ballot proposition to repeal Prop 8 in 2010. LHC raised $500,000 for the fight against Prop 8. After the November 2008 election, LHC began immediately working to repeal it. Henning co-produced and co-directed the award-winning film Saving Marriage, which tracks the three-year fight for marriage quality in Massachusetts. A Releasing/here!TV release, Saving Marriage won Best Documentary at the New York Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. In 1999, long before the California Supreme Court ruled that gay couples had the right to marry, Henning authored and circulated a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized same-sex marriage in California. A land use attorney, Henning has his own practice specializing in land use and zoning issues. He attended law school at UC Berkeley.

A lawyer. Nice. Don’t trust him. Although he’d definitely be a plausible candidate for Men Over 30 porn if he lost the gut. Come to think of it, so would Death Star EQCA’s Marc Solomon.

Jane Wishon

We love Jane. So dedicated. She truly wrote the book on straight allies. So much so that we occasionally ponder—-what’s really in it for her? No-one can be THAT altruistic and not have a gameplan on the side. Maybe we’re just jaded. Or confusing her with Rick Jacobs. Still—keep a wary eye on that one is our advice. She belongs to more equality Facebook groups and pages than we do. We consider this problematic. And a threat. She’s got her tentacles in everything. That’s our job, lady. Here’s what the RE 2010 site has to say about Miss Goldilocks:

Straight ally, Jane Wishon has held leadership positions in a number of socially conscious organizations for the last 20+ years. She currently volunteers two days a week in Case Management for AIDS Project LA, blogs on behalf of the LGBT community, serves as Treasurer for her son’s school, and does outreach to high school students for UCLA Admissions. Her background includes an MBA as a Baker Fellow at the Anderson School of Management UCLA, New Business Research and Development for Xerox Learning Systems, and Store Management for Bullocks Wilshire Department Stores. Jane lives in Los Angeles with her husband of 33 years and her three children. She is an Elder of the Presbyterian Church.

Refer back to our initial paragraph about her, please. Clearly a thorough background check is in order.

UPDATE: We were actually kind enough to notify Jane that we’d be posting this piece and to let her know that, well, for the most part it’s all in fun.  For the most part.  Not all of it. She nonetheless threatened to take exception to our making merriment at her expense to some degree (although she had yet to see a word of it). Since she, as she put it, “is working my ass off for your rights.”  She underlined “your.”

Angels and Demons.  Strangely that’s the first thought that comes to mind. Let us make something perfectly clear JANE WISHON: You’re not doing anything for anyone. You’re doing what you’re doing because obviously that’s what you want to do.  And good—FOR YOU. While it may be admirable to many that you are doing what you’re doing—-you can put the matyrdom aside. That’s not terribly interesting, at least not to us.  You’ve made a choice to place yourself in a leadership capacity. Commentary on that—-the good, the bad and the ugly—- is part of the package.  Get use to it.

Aaron Bloom

Yet, another straight ally. You’d think California booms with them to read this list. We like Aaron, too. He gets our jokes. But—tisk tisk—-read the bio:

Straight ally Aaron Bloom is a trial attorney at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, where he specializes in real estate, entertainment and general business litigation.

Bloom finds inspiration in the Nelson Henderson quote that “the true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”  A long time equal rights advocate, he worked very hard during the NO on Prop. 8 campaign because he felt he needed to put his money (and time) where his mouth is.

Aaron has been active in Love Honor Cherish since May 2008.  A speaker at numerous organizations about marriage equality, Bloom helped with NO on Prop. 8 fundraising.  Current chair for Love Honor Cherish’s Ballot Initiative Committee,  Bloom is also a Board member of the Housing Rights Center (a non-profit organization that fights discrimination in housing) and serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Free Loan Association (a non-profit organization that provides interest-free loans on a non-sectarian basis to those most in need and who may not qualify for traditional loans).  In his spare time, Aaron enjoys traveling, wine, chess, basketball and martial arts.

Another attorney. You know the drill. And he’s not just some flimsy how-do-ya-do land specialist thingy or whatever Henning does. This guy’s the real deal. And he’s actually the one calling the shots. He works at the biggest law firm among the yokels at LHC. Therefore he gets the last word. Practices entertainment law at a big phat firm in Century City. Board member for Jewish Free Loans—we partook on their charity many moons ago. Plus, we might have a script to sell. That’s why despite him being a lawyer, we like Aaron. He may come in handy.

Jeffrey Taylor

We don’t know much about Jeffrey cause he’s a Bay area guy. That enough arouses high suspicion. We know this much though: he’s in love with himself. The guy has the longest bio of all on the RE 2010 Web site. It’s at least two pages. As a punishment for that we’re just gonna give you the first few lines. No need to read about the moment he was conceived and his state of mind when scratching his navel:

Taylor recently relocated to San Francisco after living in Paris, France for four years. A sought-after expert in creative concepting and branding, he has worked for esteemed agencies such a Publicis and Interbrand. While in Europe, Jeffrey organized grassroots communities of online video artists as co-producer of Vlog Europe, the longest-running meetup of videobloggers in the world. He has been selected as a delegate for the prestigious Monaco Media Forum for two years running.

Yawn. Okay that’s enough.

Ace Smith

We don’t know Ace, either. But clearly he’s the only one with a lick of political experience in the batch of ‘em. So he’s most DEFINITELY needed. Take a look at the following dossier. Impressive:

Ace Smith is president of SCN Public Relations, a Democratic political consulting firm specializing in public relations, strategy, research, debate preparation and campaign management for political campaigns, non-profits and corporations nationwide. Since its inception, his firm has worked on campaigns at every electoral level in almost every state.

Past clients have included Virginia Governor Doug Wilder (1989), Chicago Mayor Richard Daly (1989), U.S. Senator Paul Simon (1990), Texas Governor Ann Richards (1990), U.S. Senator Patti Murray (1992), U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (1992), U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (1994), Congressman Richard Gephardt (1994), California Governor Gray Davis (1998 & 2002), U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (1992, 1998 & 2004), Howard Dean for President (2004) among many others. In 2004, Smith served as campaign manager for the No on 67 campaign – a statewide initiative in California. The initiative was defeated by a margin of 28% to 72%.

Most recently, Smith served as campaign manager for Antonio Villaraigosa’s underdog campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. Despite being outspent by over $1 million in the primary campaign, Villaraigosa beat Hahn by 11%. He went on to a 19% general election victory over the incumbent mayor, marking the first time since the 1930′s that an incumbent has been beat after only a single term. It also marked the first time in 133 years that a Latino has been elected Mayor of Los Angeles.

So there you have it. Your 5 white folks running the 2010 campaign. They’re not exactly an impressive crew. But they’re not alarming either. Right now they’re all salmon swimming up the signature gathering stream to spawn. We’re waiting to see what happens after that—the next phase of this. If they make it.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jane You Ignorant Slut: RE 2010 Fires Back At Speaker John Perez
• John Perez Says Hi! EQCA Told Me To Tell You The 2010 Repeal Prop 8 Effort Is Dead
• RE 2010 Update: Eugene Hedlund New Campaign Manager; John Henning Bye Bye