Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will
be in Minneapolis Wednesday to raise money for Republican
gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.
Gingrich will appear at a (suggested)
$1,000-per-person lunchtime fundraiser at the Marriot City Center in
downtown Minneapolis.
Gay marriage has become a significant
issue in the race to succeed Republican Tim Pawlenty in running
Minnesota.
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, began
airing television ads attacking pro-gay marriage candidates in May.
Last
month, the group released a 30-second spot supporting Emmer.
Emmer and Gingrich oppose efforts to
legalize gay marriage in Minnesota. After
a federal judge ruled California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8,
unconstitutional, Gingrich renewed a call for placing a gay marriage
ban in the U.S. Constitution. He
also supports an effort to oust from the bench three Iowa judges who
last year legalized gay marriage in the state.
The rankings of three
Minnesota-based companies – Target, Best Buy and 3M – dropped in
this year's Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, an
annual survey of a company's gay-inclusive policies, after each made
significant contributions to MN Forward, an independent political
fund supporting Emmer.