This is what happens when a conservative journalist runs for Congress.
Quin Hillyer, a longtime writer who most recently was an editor at The American Spectator, is running in the special election to fill the Alabama’s open congressional seat left vacant with the resignation of Republican Rep. Jo Bonner.
When asked to sign a pledge on gay marriage from opponent Dean Young, a businessman and former Republican congressional candidate, Hillyer sent Young’s pledge back with several edits.
Those edits included changes in substance. Hillyer disagrees with Young on whether the state’s Republican Executive Committee should expel the college Republican chairwoman for espousing a pro-gay marriage stance.
But Hillyer also played copy editor, gently dinging Young for his phrase, “The tenants of my church oppose gay marriage.”
As Hillyer bolded in his revision sent to reporters, the correct word there would be “tenets.”
Hillyer and Dean are both in a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats running for the seat. The primary is set for Sept. 24.
Hillyer was endorsed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, while Young boasts of support from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, also known as the “Ten Commandments Judge.”
Others in the race include former Alabama gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne, former RNC aide Wells Griffith and state Sen. Chad Fincher.
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Here’s Hillyer’s revised pledge, which includes Young’s initial language and Hillyer’s responses:
QUIN HILLYER’S POSITION on REC PROPOSAL
YOUNG: 1. I believe that the only marriage is between one man and one woman.
HILLYER: I believe that marriage can only occur between one man and one woman.
YOUNG: 2. I believe the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality and thereby gay marriage.
HILLYER: I believe the Bible condemns homosexual relations and thereby gay marriage.
YOUNG: 3. The tenants of my church oppose gay marriage.
HILLYER: The tenets of my church oppose gay marriage.
YOUNG: 4. I oppose gay marriage.
HILLYER: I oppose gay marriage.
YOUNG: 5. As a member of Congress, I shall take active steps to oppose gay marriage.
HILLYER: As a member of Congress, I shall take active steps to oppose gay marriage.
YOUNG: 6. I support the by-law change to expel any member of the Republican Executive Committee who opposes the party position by supporting gay marriage.
HILLYER: The Republican Executive Committee is not a Soviet-style Politburo. Republican voters, not the executive committee itself, determine who sits on the committee. I do not believe in centrally controlled ideological lockstep. While I as a voter will not vote for a candidate to the executive committee who supports homosexual marriage, I wholeheartedly oppose this attempt to strip anybody from duly elected membership on the basis of disagreement with a single platform provision.