Donoghue campaigns on local connections

When Kate Tyndall, co-founder of the Greater Lowell Equality Alliance (GLEA) began organizing a candlelight vigil in response to an anti-gay hate crime in the city last month, the first call she made was to the Rev. Ram?n I. Aymerich, the rector of St. Anne's Church, to request that the vigil be held in the churchyard. Tyndall's second call was to City Councilor Eileen Donoghue, her friend and an ally to the local LGBT community. "And she said, 'Whatever you need,'" Tyndall recalled. Tyndall asked Donoghue to speak at the event. "I've heard her talk about equality and she's very eloquent," she explained. "And she's speaks from the heart."

Donoghue joined speakers Mayor William Martin, Jr., and state Sen. Steven Panagiotakos at the rally, which drew a crowd of about 100. She later engaged in a lengthy personal conversation with the victim, Janine Nickola, a 22-year-old transwoman who was violently attacked on a city street by three men who repeatedly called her "faggot." "Now, she's running for Congress," said Tyndall, "but she cancelled everything she had that night and said, 'However long you need me, I'm there.'"

Donoghue's response did not surprise Tyndall. "She's incredibly accessible, always has been," she said.

Donoghue, who also served four years as Lowell's mayor, is vying in the special election for the 5th Congressional District seat formerly held by Marty Meehan, who vacated the seat to become the chancellor of UMass Lowell on July 1. Her opponents in the Sept. 4 Democratic primary are state Rep. Jamie Eldridge of Acton, state Rep. Barry Finegold of Andover, state Rep. James Miceli of Wilmington, and Niki Tsongas of Lowell.

Though Donoghue is not as well-known to the larger LGBT community as rivals like Eldridge, a key player in the marriage battle on Beacon Hill, or Tsongas, who has leveraged the high-profile gay political connections forged by her late husband U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas, she is no less supportive of the LGBT community. Donoghue frames her support for a range of LGBT issues from marriage equality to repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"- one of Meehan's signature causes - to the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and hate crimes legislation this way: "Anything that is discriminatory, be it 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' [or] any type of amendment or regulation that is aimed at discriminating against [LGBT] individuals, I'm certainly opposed to."

That philosophy led Donoghue, who was mayor at the time the Goodridge decision took effect in May 2004, to question then-governor Mitt Romney's directive to city clerks to enforce the 1913 law barring nonresident same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts. Donoghue, who called Romney's position "over the top," sought counsel from the city's law department. "Who is Governor Romney," she recalled thinking at the time. "These are our employees ... [and] he issues an order to city clerks as to how they are supposed to take applications for marriage licenses." (Like other clerks around the state, Lowell city clerk Richard C. Johnson had pledged not to seek proof of the residency of same-sex couples that applied for marriage licenses. Former Attorney General Tom Reilly, however, squashed dissent on the law by siding with Romney.)

Donoghue, an attorney, is campaigning on her years of experience in municipal government in Lowell, the district's largest city. She was first elected to the City Council in 1996; in 1998 she was elected to the first of two mayoral terms. Her tenure as mayor coincided with a revitalization of the struggling mill city through major development projects such as the Tsongas Arena (named for Sen. Tsongas), LeLacheur Ball Park and the conversion of abandoned mill building to artist lofts. The projects, said Donoghue, gave her valuable experience working with state and federal government as well as in partnering with the private sector. "There were battles," she said of the work. "There were huge battles, but you had to kind of stay the course and keep pushing."

Such experience, it seems, prompts her to take a more pragmatic view on some federal LGBT agenda items, namely the inclusion of gender identity and expression in ENDA and the hate crimes bill, an issue that has been debated in the LGBT community and among congressional allies. Both bills are currently trans-inclusive; the hate crimes bill has already passed the House. There has been disagreement among supporters of the bills, however, as to whether they can be passed without stripping away trans protections. Donoghue said she supports the trans-inclusive language and acknowledged that she hasn't followed the debate closely. As member of Congress, she'd work to figure out a way to include protections for transgender people, she said, "but I'm practical about a lot of my approach to things in government to try and get accomplished the best deal we can for the greater good if possible, rather than [to] just keep having unprotected classes, not getting the protection they need under the law because of a stumbling block."

Donoghue said she's looking forward to a further discussion of LGBT issues on the campaign trail and in a veiled jab at opponents Eldridge and Tsongas, both of whom have held LGBT fundraisers in Boston, suggested that she'll have the support of LGBT people inside the district. "I think this race should be about experience," she said. The LGBT community, said Donoghue, "can look to my record in public office and public service and know that I've always been supportive of all issues pertaining to equality, particularly with the gay and lesbian community. ... This is an interesting issue and I think it's one that will be fleshed out throughout the campaign - whether one candidate derives support outside the district and another is getting support within the district. At the end of the day you have to be able to get the votes."