The Arizona state legislature is likely to keep its five-member caucus of openly LGBT lawmakers after important primary elections Tuesday night.

Jack Jackson, Jr., a member of the Navajo Nation, was the top vote-getter in a three-way race for a seat in the Arizona Senate.  He would join State Sen. Paula Aboud, an out lesbian, Sen. Robert Meza, who is openly gay, and primary winner Kyrsten Sinema, an openly bisexual member of the State House who is likely to move up to the Senate.

In 2005, Jackson, a former member of the State House, was appointed by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as the Executive Director of the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs.  In April 2000, he was appointed by Secretary Donna Shalala to serve on President Clinton’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.   Today Jackson serves on the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise Board and the Obama Administration has selected him to once again serve on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

In other primary races Tuesday, Steve Howard, an openly gay man, won the Democratic nomination to become Vermont’s next lieutenant governor.

Elsewhere, out candidates faced tough losses in some tough states.  In Florida, which has never elected an openly LGBT candidate to the state legislature, Justin Flippen came up short in his bid to unseat the incumbent District 92 State House member.  Also in Florida in the race to fill Rep. Kendrick Meek’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Scott Galvin was unable to overcome a significant fundraising disadvantage in his Democratic primary.

U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said today that because marines are “very religious,” moral concerns will cause them to not want to room with openly gay troops after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  Conway’s comments were reported by NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski.

Conway said the Marine Corps will consider separate living facilities for gay and straight troops, something a Pentagon spokesman flatly rejected earlier this year.

Still, Conway added that if the military ban ends, the Corps will implement it and move on.  ”We cannot be seen as dragging our feet. We’ve got two wars to fight,” Conway said.

Nearly 60 percent of registered voters in Rhode Island now say same-sex couples should be able to legally marry, a ten percentage point jump in just the last two years, according to a report on a new poll in the Providence Journal.

Even more encouraging for gay couples, when pollsters clarified the distinction between civil marriages and religious ceremonies, support for legal marriage grew to 66 percent.

“It shows, for the first time, a convincing majority of Rhode Island voters supporting equality,” said David Walker, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm based in Washington, D.C., that conducted the poll in July.

“Marriage equality is inevitable,” Walker said. “The question is not whether, but when.”

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., last night again refused to say whether she supported the landmark decision in the Proposition 8 federal case, instead repeating that she believes the issue is best left to states to decide.

“Bono Mack declined, as she has in the past, to offer her opinion on the controversial issue,” the Desert Sun reported.

In their first and only debate, Bono Mack and Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet took the expected jabs at each other’s record and vowed that job creation would be their top priority in Congress.

Pougnet, who is openly gay, is the strongest challenger Bono Mack has faced in years.  Last night was the first time she has debated a general election opponent since 2002.

This afternoon the White House announced President Barack Obama has made recess appointments of four nominees whose confirmations were being held up in the Senate.  Among them is Richard Sorian, an openly gay man who will be the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees, and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent,” President Obama said in a release this afternoon. “Until they do, I reserve the right to act within my authority to do what is best for the American people.”

Obama has appointed hundreds of openly LGBT staff to his administration, with many recommended by the Presidential Appointments Project, the LGBT community’s effort to increase the number of out presidential appointees.

From the White House announcement:

Richard Sorian, Nominee for Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services

Richard Sorian is currently a Senior Adviser to the Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services.  Previously, he was Vice President for Public Policy and External Relations for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), where he directed the organization’s media relations, policy development and advocacy, and relations with employers, consumers, and other key stakeholders. Before working for NCQA, Sorian was Director of Public Affairs for the Center for Studying Health System Change and a Project Director at the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy. From 1993 to 1998, Sorian was a Senior Advisor for Health Policy Communications in the Office of Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. In that capacity, Sorian focused on health care reform, HIV/AIDS policy, and health care quality improvement. From1997 to 1998, he served as Deputy Director of the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he directed work on the Patient’s Bill of Rights. From 1980 to 1993, Sorian was an award-winning journalist covering U.S. health care policy development. He was editor of Medicine & Health and the Journal of American Health Policy. He is also the author of three books: The Bitter Pill: Tough Choice in America’s Health Policy (1989); A New Deal for American Health Care (1993); and The Health Care 500 (1988). He is a graduate of George Washington University and, in 1989, was awarded a fellowship for Advanced Studies in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.