The Nat’l Organization for Marriage’s Political Defeat in Iowa

With a tiny 107 vote margin, Iowa State House hopeful and National Organization for Marriage pick Stephen Burgmeier, a pig farmer, lost yesterday’s special election to retired schoolteacher Curt Hanson, a Democrat, continuing Iowa’s trend of losing Republican seats in the House.

But don’t think the loss has Republicans wiping away their tears!

“Certainly we’re disappointed but we can hang our hat on the fact that Republicans nearly won what has been a solid Democrat legislative district for over a decade,” said Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. “The fact that we were able to come so close shows there’s certainly a lot of concern, at least in this district, with the status quo and one-party rule in Des Moines.”

As for the National Organization for Marriage, which spent nearly $90,000 on television ads supporting Burgmeier (even though he claims no relationship to the group) on top of his own $300,000-plus fundraising, they’re not exactly licking their wounds, either.

Just because Burgmeier doesn’t mean their end goal — putting Iowa’s Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling up to a citizen vote — is dead: Winner Hanson supports doing so as well.