Rob Willington, Ex-Director of VoteOnMarriage, Appointed Executive Director of 
the Massachusetts Republican Party
So, here you have it, Rob Willington, who led the failed VoteOnMarriage attempt to put discrimination in the Massachusetts Constitution and who in a VOM email blast referred to gays and their families as "evil" has been made Executive Director of the Massachusetts Republican Party.
In the Boston Globe story, Mass GOP Chairman, Peter Torkildsen, lauds Willington calling him "a capable and innovative leader" and one whom he (Torkildsen) "can count on in our (the GOP's) efforts to grow the grassroots, and return two-party competition to Massachusetts."
I love the word, "innovative." It was innovative for VoteOnMarriage to use the deceptive practices of Arno Political Consultants in order to dupe and lie its way to becoming the sponsors of "the most successful petition drive in Massachusetts history." It was "innovative" to know and I would allege "suggest" that the signature gatherers use the "Beer and Wine" petition to bait and switch countless Massachusetts voters in the Fall of 2005. And it was "innovative" to copy these tactics to use other means of bait and switch to obtain signatures on the anti-same-sex marriage petition by duping voters with the dog protection petition and photos of dogs in cages, an elderly healthcare petition, using candidate sheets at town meetings and providing fake "pro" same-sex marriage petitions. All of these tactics are documented by firsthand accounts of Massachusetts voters sent to Know Thy Neighbor in emails and affidavits. Peter Torkildsen does not fully inderstand just how "innovative" Rob Willington may actually be.
But what really is the issue here is that Rob Willington would dare call a group of people "evil" in order to get signatures on a petition. And that the Massachusetts Republican Party would elevate a person in a leadership role such as this when that person is so ignorant that he has no idea what this sort of demonization directly does to this group of fellow human beings, let alone of how some parts of our society would react against LGBT when they begin to believe his statement.
Peter Torkildsen should be ashamed of himself as much as Rob Willington should. This Commonwealth deserves better than either of these men seem to be able to offer it and, in like regard, so does the Republican Party.
Tom Lang, Director
**KnowThyNeighbor has asked the Republican Leadership in the House and Senate as well as Republican Senators and Representatives who showed leadership in the defeat of VoteOnMarriage's, Rob Willington's and the State GOP's discriminatory amendment to provide us with a statement regarding Willington's appointment. Their statements will be posted on KTN if and when we receive them.**
