Isn’t the ECCO Awards Dinner slanted toward Democrats?
Our awards are based on merit. For 2003, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona (Republican and a member of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Transition Team) was honored. ECCO is proud to have a strong relationship with Sheriff Carona and we have a long, positive history of supporting him financially and with endorsements. ECCO also honored Sister Mary Elizabeth for her HIV/AIDS work, American Airlines, and Brad Brafford for his years of community support. The political party affiliations of these three are all unknown and were not part of the decision process. After the decision was made to highlight the Supreme Court sodomy law ruling, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund was chosen to give the keynote address. Their political affiliation? Unknown. ECCO also considered former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) as the Keynote Speaker.
