Even after the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) poured nearly $90,000 into his campaign, Republican candidate Stephen Burgmeier still managed to lose in a close race to Democrat Curt Hanson in a special election for an Iowa house seat yesterday.

Democratic candidate Curt Hanson, a retired schoolteacher, won against GOP candidate and Jefferson County Supervisor Stephen Burgmeier by 3,932 to 3,825 votes, according to unofficial tallies.

“We predicted it would be a close race and it was,” Hanson said of his 107-vote victory. “I think what surprised me was the total state attention and, perhaps, even national.”

Republicans acknowledge the loss was unsettling, but said the closeness of the race means that their future is bright and that they will gain ground in next year’s House, Senate and gubernatorial races.

Too bad for NOM. Now they have less money to launder up in Maine… The hits just keep on coming.

At 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, Bob Sullivan and Bill Slimback became the first same-sex couple to exchange their vows as gay marriage became legal in Vermont.

Dressed in suits, saying their vows under a large wall-mounted moose head, the two Whitehall, N.Y., men promised their love, exchanged rings and held hands during a modest 17-minute ceremony. Moose Meadow Lodge co-owner Greg Trulson, who’s also a Justice of the Peace, presided.

“It feels wonderful,” said Slimback, 38, an out-of-work Teamster who is taking Sullivan’s last name as his own. “It’s a day I’ve been long waiting for, and a day I truly honestly thought would never come.”

Slimback said he and Sullivan, 41, have long wanted to cement their relationship with a wedding, but since they couldn’t legally marry in New York they chose to wed even before Vermont’s gay marriage era officially dawned.

Vermont is one of five states that now allow same-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. New Hampshire’s law takes effect Jan. 1, 2010.

Vermont, which invented civil unions in 2000 after a same-sex couple challenged the inequality of state marriage statutes, was a mecca for gay couples who to that point had no way to officially recognize their relationships.

Since then, other states have allowed gay marriage, as did Vermont, which in April became the first state to legalize gay marriage through a legislative decree and not a court case.

Coverage from the local Fox affiliate below:

Our very own Rachel Maddow, who was recently out sick from her show on MSNBC, revealed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that she had that stanky flu, or what the rest of us call… swine flu. Watch: