What works for Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay Senator?

Tammy Baldwin, to repeat a cliche, has just made a stunning date with history. After wrenching the Wisconsin constituency off former governor Tommy Thompson, the 50-year-old becomes the first 'openly gay' US Senator.According to Wikipedia, Baldwin, who separated from her partner of 15 years Lauren Azar in 2010, was first elected to political office in 1986 in Dane County Board of Supervisors, where she stayed till 1994.Baldwin was also the first openly gay member of the Wisconsin Assembly and it was around the same time she had expressed her disappointment against Bill Clinton's diplomatic compromise on LGBT issues. Clinton then had supported the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy in the US military which prohibited openly homosexual aspirants from being inducted into service, while it had no reservation against a candidate if he/she was a closet homosexual.Baldwin, in 2002, had voiced her opposition to the war that the US was waging in Iraq. She also supported government-run healthcare, lent support to equal pay demands of women workers and had voted against a 2006 resolution to honour 9/11 victims.[caption id="attachment_517563" align="alignleft" width="380"] Tammy Baldwin. Reuters.[/caption]In 1994, she had proposed the legalising of gay marriages in Wisconsin.Baldwin was born in Madison, Wisconsin - also her battleground - and completed her education from her state. She attended the Smith College and also got herself a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1989. She practiced as a lawyer for three years following that.Baldwin, in an interview to The Guardian, recounts how it was the romance of the political drama drew her way back in 1984, when she had just graduated from college. The Guardian quotes Baldwin:

"I remember graduating from college, being very interested in public service yet wondering what I could aspire to be," she said in an interview. "It was that year [1984], when I graduated from college, that Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for vice-president, and I watched in my first efficiency apartment, a little one-room place. I choked up and I thought at that moment: I can do anything. I can aspire to anything."

Though her brush with history, is being mostly attributed to her sexuality, Baldwin admits that while it influences the causes she leans towards, this aspect  of her life rarely comes up during her political campaigns. In fact, she says America is too bothered about economic issues to be interested in the political ramifications of her personal life. "It's been a race that has been flat out on economic issues," she jokes.However, her sexuality has not been completely insulated to attacks by opponents. For example, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has often found that as a reason to call her an 'ultra liberal'.Jeffrey Kuhner, a columnist for the Washington Times, a conservative publication, had even commented a political win for Baldwin would be a 'major blow to traditional America'.In a piece on Salon, Jillian Rayfield, reconstructs how conservatives see Baldwin as a threat to traditional morality in America - the very reason why rest of America will probably be raising a toast to her victory.The Slate, which calls Baldwin's win, the 'second biggest story of the night', after Obama's victory, wonders how Baldwin's win might affect the LGBT cause in the country. David Weigel writes in The Slate:

Six years ago, Wisconsin voted on one of those gay marriage bans that plagued the land in the post-Goodrich era. All but one county approved the ban. Today, they have the nation's first openly gay senator, who now has to figure out what she wants to do with that.

Kuhner, in his column spews fire against Baldwin as someone who derides the institution of marriage and hence is pointlessly 'radical'. He writes:

“She sees herself as the tip of the spear for the LGBT community — a relentless advocate for homosexual issues. She attacks traditional marriage. She led the fight to repeal the ban on gays openly serving in the military. She consistently assaults our Judeo-Christian heritage. What consensual adults do in the privacy of their bedroom is none of the state’s business. Yet, the homosexual lobby is no longer interested in tolerance. That goal has been achieved. Proponents such as Ms. Baldwin want something more: legitimacy that is enshrined in law.”

Looks like he just got more reason to fume!