The out lesbian sister of Proposition 8 mastermind Frank Schubert has filed paperwork with the secretary of state to run for Sacramento County District Attorney.
Anne Marie Schubert already has secured major law enforcement endorsements, including that of retiring District Attorney Jan Scully and Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness. She told the Bay Area Reporter that she feels "pretty good" about her chances of winning in one of California's more moderate counties.
Schubert, who has been a Sacramento County deputy district attorney for the last 23 years, told the B.A.R. that she will seek the endorsement of all communities and will be seeking LGBT support.
"I am an out candidate and my sexual orientation is not a secret," Schubert told the B.A.R. "I plan to meet with LGBT groups and hope to get their endorsement, but I will be seeking support from all the communities because really, what I am proud of, is my work protecting the rights and civil liberties of all citizens."
According to voter records, Anne Marie Schubert, 49, is in a domestic partnership with Julie Goldberg. The couple own a Sacramento home together and are raising two children. Schubert is a registered Republican, though the district attorney is a nonpartisan office. The retiring Scully also is a Republican.
According to Darrick Lawson, a Sacramento chiropractor and president of the capital city's Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, Schubert's party affiliation precludes her from endorsement by every LGBT political action committee in Sacramento except his.
"We decided last year that if we were ever to be put in a position of wanting to endorse an openly gay Republican candidate, we needed to have at least one PAC that could," Lawson told the B.A.R. of the changes to the Rainbow Chamber's bylaws last year.
Lawson was bemused by the fact that such a possibility seemed remote only last year and now his organization, which represents 150 businesses and has 800 members, will consider endorsing not only an openly gay candidate, but one who is the sister of Frank Schubert, who was the lead political consultant for the Yes on 8 campaign. Voters approved Prop 8, which bans same-sex marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the federal Prop 8 lawsuit in March.
Lawson acknowledged that Schubert is her own person.
Schubert had a short-lived run for superior court judge in 2009 that was thwarted when then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed someone to the position.
At the time, Schubert hired Gilliard Blanning, a conservative political consulting firm known for championing some of the state's best-known Republican candidates and causes, to run her campaign.
Gilliard Blanning's website for the candidate did not mention her family or sexual orientation. But Frank Schubert told the B.A.R. at the time that he was profoundly proud of his little sister. "She and Julie are in a domestic partnership, and they have two wonderful children," Frank Schubert said.
At the time, Anne Marie Schubert declined to discuss same-sex marriage or Prop 8, citing the judicial code, which prohibits judges or judicial candidates from issuing opinions on matters that could come before the court.
Schubert told the B.A.R. this week what she had said in 2009 regarding how her election might benefit the LGBT community.
"I am proud of the work I do because I have worked to protect the rights of all citizens," she said. "It is irrelevant what race, creed, sexual orientation, or gender someone possesses. What matters is that all participants in the judicial system be treated with fairness and respect."
Dennis Mangers, a longtime advocate for Sacramento's LGBT community, told the B.A.R. that he has requested a meeting with Schubert, who was in southern California this week at a meeting of the state's law enforcement agencies.
If elected, Schubert would be the third out DA; Bonnie Dumanis, who is also a Republican, is the district attorney in San Diego County. Jill Ravitch, of Sonoma County is also openly gay.
For more information, visit www.schubert4da.com.
This article first appeared at Bay Area Reporter.
Comments