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During this election cycle, the news has been focused on the Republican tea party candidates. They are a fun-loving bunch: Let’s look them over.

In Delaware, the Senate candidate doesn’t know the First Amendment and says she used to be a witch.

In Alaska, the security team for the Senatorial candidate handcuffed a reporter for asking a question.

In Nevada, a Republican ad on Univision urged Hispanics not to vote.

In Kentucky, the Senate candidate said if he could, he would vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In Pennsylvania, the Senate candidate would outlaw abortions and put doctors who perform them on trial.

In New York, the gubernatorial candidate offered to punch a reporter and sent racist and sexist e-mails.

A little more than a week to go and the general election of 2010 will be history — and, if you feel as I do, hurrah. While we can’t wait to get this over with, it is still very important to remember that this year your vote is crucial. The LGBT vote can make the difference between a Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress. If the latter doesn’t scare you, I’m not sure what will. In any case, while we might debate on if we care about Congress, there is one congressional race we can all agree on.

Pat Murphy is the Democratic incumbent for Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. If you need any reminders, he’s the Iraq War vet who has fought “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from his days teaching at West Point to the halls of Congress. And while most ran from the issue this year, he picked up the flag and became the standard bearer for repeal in Congress. His opponent is running the same old tired Republican scare-tactic race. It’s a nail-biter. And this is a swing district in a difficult year. His district stretches from Northeast Philadelphia through Bucks County. Pat needs your help. Donate, volunteer and, most importantly, if you’re in his district, vote.

During the presidential primary season in 2008, a friend and I had a discussion with the premise, is this country more racist or more sexist? It was an easy subject to discuss since, for the first time in history, the two major candidates for president in one party were an African American and a woman. It’s an interesting debate, and you can see some of this -ism playing now in this mid-term election.

For the first time in American history, we have an African-American president and a woman as Speaker of the House. And what has been the battle cry of the right and the tea party activists? Blame all the problems of the country on Obama and Pelosi. Yeah, blame the black guy and the woman.

Getting back to the tea party and the standard bearer in Delaware, Christine O’Donnell: Her name was misspelled on her own website until this week.

Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media, having just received the 2010 Columnist of the Year Award from the 2,000-member Suburban Newspapers of America. He can be reached atmark@epgn.com.

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