For a New Hampshire Democratic party that’s promoting outreach to women and advocating gay rights, choosing Alec Baldwin to speak at their party’s most high-profile fundraiser just weeks before the November election is an interesting choice, too say the least.

In 2013, Alec Baldwin was fired from his MSNBC political talk show after launching a “foul-mouthed, homophobic rant” against a news photographer, calling him a “f****t.”

Baldwin was also widely criticized for a “homophobic twitter rant” against Daily Mail reporter George Stark  (“I’m gonna find you, George Stark, you toxic little queen, and I’m gonna f—…you…up.”).  A year later, he referred to CNN’s Anderson Cooper and other openly gay journalists as the “Gay Department of Justice.” In 2014, left-leaning Buzzfeed News ran this headline:

“Alec Baldwin Deletes Homophobic Tweet To Former Romney Aide”

 

 

Last year, during the peak of the #MeToo story–and allegations of sexual abuse by powerful Hollywood figures close to Baldwin–the SNL actor was essentially forced off of Twitter due to reaction from assault victims and their allies to his comments on the controversy.  In one interview, Baldwin suggested that Rose McGowan and other women who were victims of sexual assault and took settlements afterwards “delayed justice” for the perpetrators and “set back the cause of change.”

In 2012, Baldwin called a NY Daily News photographer a “nutty b*tch” on Twitter.

And of course everyone has heard the infamous tape of Baldwin screaming at his then 11-year-old daughter (“You are a rude, thoughtless little pig. You don’t have the brains or the decency as a human being.”)

On Sunday, Oct. 14, New Hampshire Democrats will have the chance to hear from Baldwin themselves. He’s been chosen by the party to speak at their first-ever Eleanor Roosevelt fundraising dinner.  It will be the first dinner since the party changed the name from the Kennedy-Clinton dinner earlier this year.

Baldwin is an outspoken critic of President Trump and won an Emmy last year for his mocking performance as the president on SNL. As a movie and TV star, he certainly brings a lot of celebrity firepower to the event.

In a speech last November, Baldwin admitted: “I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way. I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women.”  When he takes the podium in Manchester next month, Baldwin will be speaking to a party with four Democrats current representing New Hampshire in Washington, DC–all of them women.

For a party that is bragging about the number of women candidates on the ticket, and with an openly-gay candidate running in a key congressional Democratic primary, the choice of Alec Baldwin to headline the party’s most high-profile event could be viewed as problematic. Interestingly, as of yet not a single New Hampshire Democrat or liberal activist has spoken out publicly to object.

Is this yet another example of the power of celebrity “trump”-ing all other concerns in the politics of 2018?