Libertarians at the Delaware State Fair for Marriage Equality

So six members of the Libertarian Party of Delaware answered the call of Delaware Right to Marry and spent the day today collecting signatures for the marriage equality petition.

Chuck Meade, who is spearheading the petition drive has been working the booth by himself most of the week, in no small measure because Demopublicans are afraid that being associated with this petition drive will cost them some votes.  (Of the pictures I wish I had remembered to take was Chuck's T-Shirt:  "I'm not gay, but my husband is.")

Ronnie Fitzgerald and Wendy Jones

Ronnie Fitzgerald (Libertarian candidate for State Rep, District 35) was the first to arrive.  He had the most profoundly spiritual experience of the day when a man he asked to sign the petition threw up his hands and shouted, "Don't touch me, Satan!"

Wendy Jones (Libertarian candidate for State Senate, District 6) proved to be one of our most successful collectors of signatures (see below).  When people would tell Wendy that Jesus commanded them not to sign those petitions, Wendy smiled at them and said, "Jesus made me, too, you know."

Andy Groff at the mid-point of his
fifteen-minute guerilla campaign

Andrew Groff (Green/Libertarian candidate for US Senate) tried to push the envelope by appropriating an empty booth next to the marriage equality table for his own campaign banner.  The Delaware State Fair is efficient, I'll give them that:  within fifteen minutes they had evicted Andy from his short campaign stint, and sent him back to our table to distract people from the booth across the way that was selling small rodents (or trying to, anyway).  Some people were not sure why they actually came into our tent, between the small rat-like creatures being hawked as pets, the marriage equality booth, and the nearby Delaware Right to Life booth with its case of three-dimensional plastic fetuses (you cannot make this stuff up).

Will McVay, waiting for Miss Delaware;
Chuck Meade and Wendy Jones in
the background.

Will McVay (Republican [Libertarian] candidate for State Rep, District 32) scored the major coup of the day when he managed to acquire the signature of Miss Delaware, Alyssa Murray, on the Marriage Equality petition.  Miss Murray, as we shall see in a moment, showed considerably more integrity about the issue than any Democratic or Republican politicians who might have wandered by.

David Eisenhour (Libertarian candidate for Clerk of the Peace and Insurance Commissioner) instilled new life into the effort around 2:30pm when he plunked down a five-dollar bill on the table and said, "This says I can get more signatures in the next hour than anybody else can."  It was at this point that Chuck was very sure that campaigning with Libertarians was something different that he was used to seeing.

David Eisenhour gets a photo with
Karin Weldin Stewart, but, alas,
no signature for marriage equality.

Wendy, by the way, won the contest, but David had his own moment in the sun when his electoral opponent, Karin Weldin Stewart, wandered by and posed for a photo with him.  Remember I mentioned Miss Delaware's political integrity?  Democrat KWS refused to sign the petition because, apparently, it might turn off some voters.

I drank a lot of tea and managed to stay out of all the photos.  One guy asked me, "Is this petition on the level, or is it one of them perversion things?"  Another lady told me with great concern that, as a Christian with a gay brother, she was seriously tormented about what she should do, but was afraid that  her pastor might find out if she signed the petitition.

Chuck hasn't totaled how many signatures we got (they are still collecting petitions as I write; the booth closes in about 45 minutes), but it should have hit at least 150.

Several people wearing "Kovach for Congress" T-shirts walked past us without making eye contact.

A couple more Libertarians (Jim Christina, candidate for State Senate, 7th District, and Amy Merlino, candidate for State Rep, District 15) will be helping Chuck out tomorrow, and my daugher Alexis and I will be doing a couple of hours on Saturday.  If you get the chance, come out and visit.

It is a great cause, and a good time was had by all.  Thanks to Bill Humphrey at the Delaware Right to Marry PAC for help getting the cool T-shirts.  Come out tomorrow or Saturday, sign the petition, and meet Chuck or any Libertarians hanging around.