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Consultant known for 'Adam & Steve' flier killed
Ralph Gonzalez, 36, president of the Strategum Group, was found dead at his Orlando home last Thursday, Aug. 23 along with his roommate, David Abrami, 36, and a friend, Robert Drake, 30. The shooting happened two days before on Aug. 21. Police say Gonzalez and Abrami were killed by Drake, a former U.S. Marine, who then turned the gun on himself. Police said they did not know what the motive might have been. Gonzalez, an attorney, worked in several Alabama campaigns, including Attorney General Troy King's winning race and State Sen. Scott Beason's successful GOP race. Beason, R-Gardendale, was the founder of a political action committee called the Alabama Republican Legislative Committee. It paid Gonzalez' firm $3,144 for work in a special election for Alabama House District 65 in 2005. Gonzalez designed and mailed a flier describing how Democrat Gloria Dolbare of Bigbee had not signed a Christian Coalition pledge to support a constitutional amendment to ban samesex marriages in Alabama. The flier said: "Let Gloria Dolbare know God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" Dolbare, the widow of longtime Democratic representative Jeff Dolbare who died of cancer, was vying for the seat that included parts of Choctaw and Clarke Counties and all of Washington County. The race was an unusual one because another Democrat, Wayne Lathan, was disqualified because he did not properly file financial forms. He ran as a write-in candidate. Nick Williams won the three-way race as a Republican, the first GOP candidate to hold a legislative seat from the area in at least modern times. The flier was highly criticized and in the next election Williams was targeted and lost to Marc Keahey of Grove Hill, who returned the seat to the Democratic fold. Beason told the Associated Press he never met Gonzalez but had talked to him on the phone several times and picked up a line from him to use in his speeches. Gonzalez was the son of Cuban immigrants and opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants, Beason said.
"He was the one who told me first, 'It's like breaking in line at Six Flags.' I've used that ever since," Beason said.
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