Sara Orozco runs a spirited, uphill race against anti-gay incumbent

Last January openly gay Needham resident Sara Orozco, a psychologist with no political experience, decided to challenge state Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham), an incumbent who bested a Democratic challenger in two prior elections. Nine months later Orozco held a fundraiser Oct. 2 at the Omni Parker House that featured a roster of speakers that would do the most seasoned politician proud.

The fundraiser was billed as a "celebration of the women leaders among us," and among those endorsing Orozco from the podium were Attorney General Martha Coakley, Senate President Therese Murray, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, and House Majority Whip Lida Harkins. Addressing the crowd of about 40 people at the Omni Parker, Harkins assured them that Orozco also had the firm backing of the state Democratic Party.

"This is a tough, tough game, and it's very tough, as you've heard from other speakers, for women to raise money in particular, and I have news for you. You can only give her $500, but we're working very hard, both the House and Senate, to put together a coordinated campaign, with our presidential and vice presidential nominees and Sen. Kerry and our congressional delegation. ... And the way you can [help Orozco] is you can give up to $5000 to the Massachusetts state party. They then will help with mailings and phone calls, all sorts of other literature and things that Sara might need in her campaign," said Harkins.

Murray also worked to bring in the big bucks, even shaking down some of her fellow senators from the podium. After announcing the presence of Sens. Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville), Thomas McGee (D-Lynn), and Steven Tolman (D-Boston) she added, "I know that they can each give $100 from their campaign account, so I expect a check for Sara."

Orozco has also racked up endorsements from local and national LGBT organizations, including the Victory Fund, MassEquality, Bay State Stonewall Democrats and the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Political Caucus. MassEquality and the Victory Fund will co-host an LGBT fundraiser for Orozco Oct. 22 at Club Caf? in Boston.

Brown has long been an opponent of marriage equality while Orozco, not surprisingly, is a strong supporter. If she wins Orozco will be the second lesbian senator to fill that seat, following Brown's predecessor Cheryl Jacques.

How did a political novice starting with almost zero name recognition become one of the state Democratic Party's top priorities in less than a year? Orozco told Bay Windows it boiled down to dogged persistence. Orozco, who works in private practice, said that since deciding to run in January "it has been 24/7."

"It has taken probably thousands of phone calls and talking to people, telling them about the campaign, raising money, showing up at events two or three times, since January. ... For the people like Therese Murray, everybody else, they come in at a point when the campaign shows viability," said Orozco.

Orozco said she decided to get involved in the public policy world about two years ago, having grown frustrated with the challenges faced by many of the patients in her practice, who were having trouble getting and keeping jobs and accessing affordable healthcare. She also wanted to work on education issues, which became particularly important once her twin sons Jake and Brady, now nine years old, entered the public schools.

"I just kept meeting with different companies saying, I want to do policy work, I want to be involved, and finally somebody said to me, well, why don't you run for office?" Orozco said.

Orozco grew up in the politically active Cuban exile community of Miami, but had never imagined running for office. Nonetheless, she decided to explore the possibility of running and attended a training in Wisconsin last January sponsored by EMILY's List, which helps elect Democratic pro-choice women to office. Orozco returned to Needham determined to give it a go and set her sights on the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex District Senate seat, which encompasses Needham, Norfolk, Plainville, Wrentham, North Attleboro, Sherborn, Wayland, Millis, and portions of Franklin, Wellesley, Attleboro and Natick.

Since then most of Orozco's waking hours have been spent either on the phone -- raising money and soliciting endorsements from elected officials and other community leaders -- or out in the district canvassing and attending community events. She credited Harkins, one of her earliest endorsers, for getting other elected officials to take notice of her campaign. Harkins, who represents Needham, appeared alongside Orozco at her campaign kick-off last June.

"It just gave that level of credibility and viability," said Orozco.

In the months since she began campaigning, Orozco has received endorsements from Gov. Deval Patrick and Congressman Barney Frank, who appeared with her at a fundraiser in Wellesley last month, and Sen. John Kerry, in addition to the aforementioned politicos.

The big question heading into November is whether those high-profile endorsements will be enough to unseat Brown. Orozco's campaign concedes that she is the underdog in the race. According to a poll of the district taken last month that the campaign released to the political blog Politicker, Brown currently leads Orozco among voters in the district, and if the election were held now he would win with 52.9 percent to Orozco's 29.5 percent. Brown enjoys a nearly 60 percent job approval rating and a 51.1 percent favorability rating, not a good sign for a challenger seeking to defeat an incumbent. The same poll shows that Orozco's name recognition in the district is only 18.5 percent. The campaign told Politicker that they see signs for hope in the voter response to a question about whether Brown deserves reelection. The poll found that 45.3 percent believe he should be re-elected, 22.5 percent believe someone else should win the seat, and 32.3 percent are undecided. It also found that after voters heard Orozco's messages about her positions on the economy, education and healthcare, as well as negative messages about Brown's opposition to same-sex marriage and support of casino gambling, Orozco beat him in a head-to-head poll 48.6 percent to 38.9 percent. Scott Ferson, Orozco's campaign manager, told Bay Windows that since the poll was conducted Orozco has worked to boost her public profile in the district, and he said he is confident she will be able to introduce herself to enough voters by Election Day to prevail.

"Starting off at 30 percent before you've introduced yourself is pretty good. ... The most telling number is once you introduce both of the candidates in the poll Sara can beat him by a pretty good margin," said Ferson.

He said the campaign has not done any additional polling since the September poll, so it will remain to be seen on Election Day how well Orozco has spread the word about her candidacy.

David Paleologos, director of suffolk University's Political Research Center, said that given Orozco's low name recognition in that September poll it is crucial that she educate voters about her candidacy. If she fails to do that, even voters who dislike Brown may not pull the lever for her. He explained that in a campaign there are generally three stages, "informative, comparative, and, if necessary, negative. And she's in the informative stage with three weeks in the campaign to go." If Orozco can't quickly increase her name recognition, said Paleologos, voters may simply opt out of the Senate race. "They may say, 'I don't like Brown, I don't know much about her, I'll just vote for president,'" he said.

Orozco also trails Brown in fundraising. According to reports filed in early September with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Orozco had raised less than $60,000 by the end of August and had spent most of that money; Brown raised nearly $100,000 over that same period, and by the end of August reported having $109,000 left in the bank. Among Brown's contributors were Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) President Kris Mineau, the most high-profile anti-LGBT activist in the state, and MFI's sister organization, the Massachusetts Independent PAC for Working Families.

Reached last week by Bay Windows Brown declined to comment for this story directly and said he would pass on the request for comment to his campaign spokesperson. The campaign has not returned Bay Windows' request for comment.

Brown has also proven himself an effective campaigner. In March 2004 he defeated Democrat Angus McQuilken in a special election to replace Jacques after she stepped down, and the following November he fended off a challenge from McQuilken in the general election.

Georgia Hollister Isman, director of the progressive coalition Mass Alliance, which has endorsed Orozco, said despite Brown's apparent advantages in the race she believes that Orozco is in a position to unseat him. She said one major factor in Orozco's favor is "the huge turnout for Barack Obama, which is going to be really helpful. Big turnout in general is good for Democratic candidates, [bringing out] lots of low-income people, lots of young people who don't always vote in every election but when they do turn out tend to be more likely to vote for women candidates, candidates of color, and progressive candidates."

Isman said Orozco herself is likely to energize voters in the district.

"She's got a great sense of charisma and energy that is really appealing to everybody who meets her and hears about her in lots of ways," said Isman. She said Orozco's focus on the issues of jobs, healthcare and education would likely resonate with many voters in the district.

A source close to the Orozco campaign, who asked to remain anonymous because the source's current position bars them from endorsing political candidates, said the election would ultimately hinge on voter turnout. According to the source, the northern half of the district tends to be Democratic while the southern half is strongly Republican, with Millis, a break-even town, forming the dividing line between the two halves. The source said the atmosphere of the presidential race and the expected high Democratic turnout in the district seems reminiscent of 1992, when Jacques first won the seat, defeating another Republican incumbent.

"This election reminds me of 1992 when Cheryl Jacques first ran for this seat. ... I think it would be fair to say this is a change cycle, just like 1992," said the source. "This election is one where turnout of democratically oriented change voters should be very high, particularly in the northern end of this district."

The source also praised Orozco for running a strong campaign.

"Combine that with Sara Orozco running a strong campaign and spending a lot of time knocking on doors and spending a lot of time in the district and there's every reason to believe she's viable in this race," said the source.

Orozco also said she expects voter turnout to be comparable to 1992. She said that since 2004 the district has seen an increase in Democratic voter registration and a decrease in registered Republicans.
It is unclear what role if any Orozco's sexual orientation will play in the race, but thus far it has had seemingly little impact. Yet Brown has not been averse to making an issue of an opponent's sexuality. In 2001, when he was mulling a challenge to Jacques he told the Boston Globe that Jacques' decision to have twins with her partner, Jennifer Chrisler, was "not normal," and he made reference to Jacques' "alleged family responsibilities."

"I don't know what their relationship is," Brown, who was a state representative at the time, told the Globe. "They're certainly not married. There's a difference of philosophy there. Are there two mothers there? Are they husband and wife?"

Brown later apologized for the remark after it became a source of controversy. He said he should have described Jacques' family as "non-traditional" rather than "not normal."

Orozco, like Jacques, has a family, including children. Orozco and her ex-wife, Lori Herman, share custody and parenting responsibilities of Jake and Brady. Early on in the campaign Orozco said she talked about being an out candidate on the stump, but she found voters cared very little about her sexuality.

"Early on I tested it on different platforms, different stump speeches, and it became clear early on that people just weren't interested. It just wasn't something that was going to influence people one way or the other. And if people were to ask me I absolutely tell them, but I'm running like any other candidate. I just happen to be gay," said Orozco.

Brown has not commented on Orozco's sexuality. In fact the candidates have yet to meet each other face to face. Orozco said her campaign has made overtures to Brown's campaign to hold a debate, but so far their advances have been rebuffed.

Orozco said one advantage she has going into November is that, unlike the McQuilken/Brown races in 2004, marriage equality is no longer a hot-button issue. She thinks opposition to same-sex marriage may have helped Brown in some parts of the district in 2004, but she does not expect that to be the case this year. Polling suggests momentum on the marriage issue has shifted in the opposite direction. According to the campaign poll released to Politicker 50 percent of voters were less likely to vote for Brown after learning of his position on same-sex marriage.

Orozco said despite those numbers the campaign has no plans to highlight Brown's position on marriage equality.

"I think what the poll does, it confirms the feedback while we've been out there campaigning, which is the great majority of voters have no interest in revisiting or re-litigating marriage equality," said Orozco. "They want us to talk about the things that are really important to them, which are education, the economy and healthcare."

LGBT issues may not play a central role in the campaign, but Orozco said she intends to be a strong advocate for the LGBT community if elected. She supports a bill introduced this session in the House to add transgender-inclusive language to the state's non-discrimination and hate crimes laws, and she said she is particularly interested in working on LGBT elder and youth issues.

"I will always make sure to protect equality if challenged in every way. It's just that right now there's so many things happening in our towns with local aid and the economy that right now this seems to be what's taking the front page," said Orozco. "But I will always stand strong on equality."