[Vision2020] Anti-Gay Marriage Bill Foes Build Numbers

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (February 1, 2005) Spokesman Review -

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Anti-gay marriage bill foes build numbers
 
It takes 12 nays to defeat proposed amendment

By Chuck Oxley Associated Press
February 1, 2005

BOISE - As Wednesday's vote on gay marriage draws closer, legislators who
are expected to vote against it are firming up their opposition.

And if it fails this week, the sponsors said, the bill probably won't be
brought back for at least a year.

The proposal would invalidate any type of marriage or civil union except
those between one man and one woman. There is also some question about
whether common-law marriages and other domestic living arrangements might be
inadvertently affected.

Constitutional amendments must pass the House and Senate by at least a
two-thirds majority to advance to the next stage. After that, the people get
to vote on the issue. Only a simple majority is required to pass in the
General Election.

In the Senate, 12 votes against any constitutional amendment are enough to
kill it. By Monday, 13 senators had said they intend to vote in opposition
to the gay marriage amendment and at least two more have said they are
leaning against it.

Boise State University political science professor Jim Weatherby said that
in this case, senators will feel more comfortable voting against the measure
if many of their friends do, too.

"The more you have voting no, the more cover it provides for those in the
dissenting vote," Weatherby said.

 
Advocates on both sides have been working hard in the Statehouse and on the
Internet during the past week.

Rev. Bryan Fischer, a conservative Boise pastor who served as Senate
Chaplain in 2001, sent an e-mail to his supporters on Saturday asking them
to target GOP Sen. John Andreason of Boise and Democrat Sen. Edgar Malepeai
of Pocatello.

Fischer encouraged his followers to call the senators, and included their
home telephone numbers.

"I've received seven or eight calls, but none of them from my own district,"
said Andreason, who added none of them were persuasive.

Fischer told his supporters that Malepeai lives in a highly Mormon district
in Pocatello.

"It will be especially helpful for him to hear from fellow members of the
LDS faith community," Fischer wrote.

Malepeai acknowledged that he has had more than 50 calls and e-mails from
constituents, but he said about half of his contacts were from people who
wanted him to vote against the amendment.

Many senators and other Capitol watchers have expected that the legislation
might be changed as it moved through the Legislature, removing one sentence
that could be construed to outlaw arrangements of opposite-sex couples
living together.

But the bill's floor sponsor, Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, said he isn't
willing to do that.

"I'm not planning to do anything but run the bill," McKenzie said Monday.

"The debate is focused on this bill, this vote."

Last year, a similar measure passed the House but stalled in a Senate
committee. Procedural moves to hold a vote on the bill anyway also failed.

This year, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb said that if gay marriage opponents
wanted to tackle the issue again, they needed to get it through the Senate
first.

Majority Leader Rep. Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, reaffirmed that commitment
on Monday. But 2006 may be a different story.

"Not this year, but probably the next," Denney said.

Opposition:

At least 13 senators have already expressed public opposition to the bill: 

John Andreason, R-Boise; 
Mike Burkett, D-Boise; 
Charles Coiner, R-Twin Falls; 
Tom Gannon, R-Buhl; 
John Goedde; R-Coeur d'Alene; 
Kate Kelly, D-Boise; 
David Langhorst, D-Boise; 
Brad Little, R-Emmett; 
Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello; 
Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow; 
Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston; 
Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum; 
Elliot Werk, D-Boise.