In a Tuesday email to supporters entitled, “Carl DeMaio Wants You to Vote For Him, But He Totally Disrespects Your Vote,” the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has followed through on a promise to “actively oppose” the candidate the GOP establishment has branded a “New Generation Republican.” The email endorses voting for the incumbent Democrat, Scott Peters, even though he is “wrong on the issues.”

DeMaio is locked in an extremely tight, highly-targeted battle with freshman Peters in the San Diego district. Accusations of plagiarism, office break-ins and sexual harassment have plagued the DeMaio camp, while DeMaio slams Peters over alleged hypocrisy involving pensions. Both camps have run a barrage of negative ads against one another. Meanwhile, polls show the race neck-and-neck between the two.

Before the sexual harassment allegations became more widely known, NOM, the Family Research Council (FRC) and CITIZENLink had released a letter that put Republican leadership on notice of their “active opposition” to DeMaio, as well as two other candidates up for election in 2014. However, the first letter stopped short of supporting Peters.

The new letter echoes calls from some local Tea Party and conservative leaders to support Peters.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Marriage Supporter,

Carl DeMaio, who claims to be a Republican, apparently doesn’t see the irony in asking you to vote for him. See, DeMaio has praised a process that stripped 7 million Californians of their votes in favor of Proposition 8 without even a defense being mounted by our elected officials. The opinion of one federal judge in San Francisco has been imposed on California in direct opposition to the decision of voters. And Carl DeMaio is fine with this judicial activism that stripped Californians of their votes because it aligns with his own agenda of redefining marriage.

The truth is that in Carl DeMaio’s world, it’s not about you, it’s about him. DeMaio doesn’t care about your votes on important issues like marriage, he only cares about getting you to vote for him.

Carl DeMaio is wrong on marriage, just as he is wrong on abortion. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 to fight what the platform called the “twin relics of barbarism” — slavery and polygamy. It was, and is, a party committed to campaigning for moral truths, and the truth of marriage as the faithful union of one man and one woman has been part of our beliefs since the founding of the GOP.

If Carl DeMaio is elected, we’re going to have someone in Washington with a platform the tear our beliefs to shreds. Nobody in the media is going to care about his position on pension reform, they’re going to give him a national platform to campaign against marriage and life. He will be featured on all the national news shows and will be featured by the leftist media as a “new Republican” to be role model for young people.

We have one chance to stop this, and it’s right now. If DeMaio wins on November 4th, it will be extremely difficult to remove him once he gets access to all the corporate money and power structures that typically go to incumbents.

The National Organization for Marriage urges you to refuse to vote for Carl DeMaio. In fact, we ask you to vote for incumbent Scott Peters, even though Peters is also wrong on the issues. The reason for this is that Peters can’t do any damage as a Democrat in a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans (emphasis added), and we can work together to elect a true conservative in two years to replace him. But Carl DeMaio serving as a supposed Republican in a House controlled by Republicans can do great damage, and could end up holding the seat for decades.

Please go to www.republicansandindependentsforscottpeters.net for more information. And please, whatever votes you cast on November 4th, do NOT vote for Carl DeMaio.

Faithfully,

Brian S. Brown

President

National Organization for Marriage

In the midst of all of the controversy, the National Republican Congressional Committee and John Boehner have continued to support DeMaio. Boehner was the main attraction at a recent fundraiser held in support of DeMaio amidst the sexual harassment scandal.

The Hill reported: “Through his various fundraising committees, Boehner has donated the maximum $14,000 to both DeMaio and Tisei (another candidate the NOM, FRC and CITIZENLink letter oppose) this cycle, records show. The NRCC also is spending big in those races, pouring $2.3 million to help DeMaio in his bid to unseat freshman Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.).”

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana