Suppose Boat US wants to support a candidate who is in favor of cleaning up
the Chesapeake, or has a favorable stand on docking rights, or wants more
funding for CG search and rescue?

More funding for SAR, probably OK.
If you holler "Mayday", nobody asks if you're a Bush supporter before they
dispatch a rescue. (Although there is likely a group who feel that they
should.)

If a candidate has some boater friendly poistions, I would want to know where
he or she stands on the *rest* of the issues.
If they are pretty much OK, I don't need my Boat US membership money going to
them.....I will send a personal check.

Few things pizza me off worse than various organizations and associations I
choose to belong to (or am compelled to belong to for professional purposes)
making a decision about which political candidate they believe is "best" for
the organization and steering my membership fees to their campaign. Every
election year my trash fills up with solicitations from these organizations
asking for additional money yet to support some (usually) right wing candidate
or another.

As this newsgroup so aptly illustrates, boating and politics are a difficult
mix. :-)