Gay Groups Use Donations to Become a Force in Elections

By JEREMY W. PETERS
October 25, 2008

The city of Rochester and its suburbs along Lake Ontario may seem an unlikely focal point for the national gay rights movement.

But many of the philanthropists who have bankrolled gay and lesbian causes throughout the country have poured tens of thousands of dollars in the past month into the State Senate campaign of Rick Dollinger, a Democrat and ally of the gay community. Mr. Dollinger is challenging a Republican incumbent, Joseph E. Robach, whose district includes Rochester.

Mr. Dollinger is not the only beneficiary of the gay community’s largess in this election. From Suffolk County on Long Island to the suburbs of Buffalo, checks from donors in far-flung places like West Hollywood, Denver and Chicago have been pouring into the campaigns of Democratic Senate candidates, adding a surprising dynamic to the battle to oust Republicans from their last post of power in state government. the rest