"Tactics like this reinforce my belief that I did the right thing," Puppolo told The Springfield Republican. "I voted to keep discrimination off the ballot and out of the Massachusetts constitution."

"It's unfortunate that small-minded groups like this from out of the area come in and spread this kind of hate and inflammatory statements," he said.

The billboard underscores his belief the ballot question would have sparked a divisive, nasty advertising campaign next year, he said.

Puppolo, a Catholic who is married with two small children, said he attends Mass each week.

"To bring Judas into the equation really shows how desperate this group is," he said.

Earlier this year, the religious right and Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts failed in their effort to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. At issue, was marriage equality for same sex couples which has been legal in Massachusetts since 2004. The long arm of Dobson reached into the state via his Bay State proxy, the Massachusetts Family Institute, which led the effort to get the amendment on the ballot. The effort came up five votes short in the state legislature, in part because a number of legislators changed their minds -- including Puppolo. And now a national organization has been created to attack pro marriage equality state legislators in what they term "difficult states." (By this we may mean, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachussetts, California, New York and New Jersey.)

Puppolo is the first of eleven MA state legislators expected to be targeted by a new New Jersey-based national group called the National Organization for Marriage. It is headed by Brian S. Brown, the former head of the James Dobson's Connecticut political affiliate, the Family Institute of Connecticut.      

In a blog post earlier this year Brown bragged that the Family Institute of Connecticut

...has defeated every attempt to pass a same-sex "marriage" law in Connecticut-and that we have become one of the leading voices for religious liberty in the "Constitution State."

Our successes in Connecticut have been noticed by the nation's most important pro-family leaders. And that is why I can tell you about the exciting things happening this summer.

He then explained:

Effective August 1st I will become the executive director of a new group: the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). I am joining Maggie Gallagher, one of the leading pro-family voices in the country, to fill a gap in our national efforts to protect marriage and defend the family. NOM's focus will be in fighting same-sex marriage in the most difficult states, to help candidates that support marriage, and to defeat those candidates that are working to undermine and redefine it.

Those who wish to redefine marriage are a minority-even in the liberal Northeast. Yet they have a stranglehold on our legislatures because of the effectiveness of their political organizations, their strategic targeting of key districts, and, perhaps most importantly, their massive financial contributions to anti-family candidates.

As the new head of NOM it will be my job to help coordinate national efforts to support pro-family efforts in states-like Connecticut-that are on the front line in the fight to protect marriage.

This organization will help state organizations like the Family Institute of Connecticut by leveraging national resources to fight same-sex marriage in the most difficult states. In this way my new position will help further the work that we have begun at FIC.

The Massachusetts Family Institute and the Family Institute of Connecticut are part of a national network of Focus on the Family affiliated state-level think tanks and political operations that have generally taken the lead in promoting antigay ballot initiatives around the country in recent years.

Rep. Puppolo, as a freshman state representative, would probably have been targeted by the state GOP as a potentially vulnerable seat -- but now it is apparent that the national religious right has him in their crosshairs as well. And while it is not yet clear how much oomph NOM will have, (their web site is "under construction") it is not unreasonable to think that they will be able to raise enough money to at least do things like this, and it is also reasonable to think that the religious right will be doing  everything they can to keep marriage equality as contentious an issue as they can heading into 2008.

Meanwhile, Angelo Puppolo is asking for our help, and has a few initial suggestions.

"The billboard... is very large and placed strategically on I-91 Southbound. Lamar Advertising owns the board and took the order from an out of state group from New Jersey - Lamar's number is 860-246-6546 in case anyone should feel the desire to call and let Lamar know what you think of the distasteful billboard."

I would appreciate any help that anyone is willing to offer - please send me your name and contact information if you want to volunteer on my campaign - also anyone that wants to send my campaign committee a donation - I would appreciate that very much the committee address is:

The Puppolo Committee
P.O. Box 80898
Springfield, MA 01138

Again, please spread the word as I need your help and support now more than ever. Thanks - Angelo

Online contributions can be made here:

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