Earlier this week Gay Politics Report asked more than 20,000 readers whether the lack of discussion about LGBT issues such as marriage equality this political season is a good thing or a bad thing.  Our readers were divided.

Nearly half said it was a good thing.  They’re either tired of feeling like a political punching bag or maybe they really want candidates to focus on bread and butter issues like job creation and the economy.

About 41 percent believe it’s a bad thing.  They’d like to know where candidates stand on these issues.  Voting for a candidate who shares your values on taxes and the stimulus doesn’t necessarily mean he or she will support LGBT equality, and you won’t find out unless someone asks the right questions.

Ten percent of respondents weren’t sure.

Results are here.

It stands to reason that LGBT Americans care about equality issues – partnership rights, employment non-discrimination and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” among others.  But what other political issues are important to us this year, and how do they stack up against the issues all Americans care about?

In its August 17th issue, Gay Politics Report asked more than 20,000 readers what, beyond LGBT issues, they were most interested in this election cycle.  Out of 10 possible choices, nearly 54% chose the economy and jobs as their top concern, mirroring the results of every national poll this summer.  Health care, the environment and immigration ranked #2, #3 and #4, which is also not dissimilar to national polling.  Issues polling below 5% in the reader poll included education, poverty, abortion, crime and terrorism.

Our reader poll is not scientific.  Respondents are Gay Politics Report subscribers who are probably more politically engaged than rank and file LGBT Americans, and they chose to participate in the poll.  Still, the results suggest that our community has a lot more in common with the average American than many would like to believe.  That common ground can be useful as we work to build support among allies and dispel myths about who we are.

Which issues do voters list as “very important” in the 2010 election?  A new Pew Research Center poll finds “same-sex marriage” ranks dead last.

Just 32 percent of all respondents in a recent poll of registered voters said the issue ranked as “very important,” with 37 percent of Republicans and 26 percent of Democratic respondents saying so.

Forty-eight percent said same-sex marriage was not important.

Ahead of the 13th-place “same-sex marriage” on the list of issues important to voters:

1. Economy
2. Jobs
3. Healthcare
4. Terrorism
5. Budget deficit
6. Taxes
7. Financial system
8. Energy
9. Afghanistan
10. Immigration
11. Environment
12. Abortion

In 2004, Karl Rove masterminded a devious political strategy from his perch at the White House, building a massive get-out-the-vote scheme partly centered around opposition to marriage equality.  But even with a federal judge in California declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional this week, it appears unlikely his decision will be used to energize the GOP base in the 2010 mid-term elections.

President George W. Bush won his 2004 reelection bid with 50.7 percent of the vote to Sen. John Kerry’s 48.3 percent, but Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, was the real prize. That November, Ohio and 10 other states had gay marriage ban questions on their statewide ballots, each passing easily.  The New York Times reported that the bans in Ohio and elsewhere acted like “magnets,” driving social conservatives to the polls and boosting Bush’s numbers:

In Ohio, for instance, political analysts credit the ballot measure with increasing turnout in Republican bastions in the south and west, while also pushing swing voters in the Appalachian region of the southeast toward Mr. Bush. The president’s extra-strong showing in those areas compensated for an extraordinarily large Democratic turnout in Cleveland and in Columbus, propelling him to a 136,000-vote victory.

“I’d be naïve if I didn’t say it helped,” said Robert T. Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. “And it helped most in what we refer to as the Bible Belt area of southeastern and southwestern Ohio, where we had the largest percentage increase in support for the president.”

What a difference six years makes.

This year Republicans are hoping to peel off some of the same moderate and independent voters who helped elect President Barack Obama in 2008.  But the reaction in GOP circles to Wednesday’s landmark ruling in California suggests Rove and his colleagues may view an anti-gay strategy as less appropriate today.

Part of the reason may be a remarkable shift in the electorate on the question of LGBT rights over  the last six years.  Today, nationwide support for marriage equality looks much different than it did in 2004.  A CBS News poll conducted in March of that year found just 22% of Americans favored legal marriage for gays and lesbians.  But an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in February of 2010 found nearly half (47%) supporting marriage rights for same-sex couples–a 25 percentage point jump.

Republicans also understand that in an economy that has yet to create many new jobs since the near-collapse of the financial system, voters may not be in a mood to listen to messages about same-sex marriage.  An article in Politico today explores the GOP’s apparent reluctance to pounce on Judge Vaughn Walker’s Proposition 8 decision:

“It raises an issue (Republicans would) rather not have to deal with … (it’s) hard to walk to the line of opposing same sex-marriage and displaying enough tolerance to keep independents and Democrats comfortable enough to vote for you.”

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, put it simply: “A modern party does not want a campaign that’s built around a crusade on gay rights. … it won’t work, for one thing, and for another, it’s so controversial that it would obscure the nonpartisan appeal of the economic issue.”

He added, “I don’t think that moderates and independents get very excited about this.”

Socially conservative Republicans will be more successful this fall if they downplay their views on “abortion, gay marriage and other hot button social issues,” says Cameron Lynch, a GOP strategist writing in Politico yesterday.

Lynch urges candidates to follow the lead of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, whose strategy of “biting his tongue…netted him the support of independents and moderate conservatives who either stayed home or voted for Obama in 2008,” he wrote.  ”Social and ‘movement’ conservatives, apparently adequately convinced that McDonnell was ‘one of them’, overlooked his unwillingness to preach their gospel on the campaign trail,” Lynch added.

Lynch’s advice is hard to argue with.  McDonnell breezed into office, and almost immediately began to implement a conservative social agenda that set back LGBT rights in the state.  The question now is this:  Will LGBT Americans and their allies allow this to happen in races across the country this year?