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| Rep. Barney Frank is in line to chair the House Committee on Financial Services
if Democrats retake control of the House.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
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Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he would run for the U.S. Senate seat
now held by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in a 2005 special election
if Kerry wins the presidency this year and if Republicans retain control of the
House. Frank, who is gay, is in line to become chair of the highly influential
House Committee on Financial Services if Democrats win control of the House in
the 2004 congressional elections. Frank discussed his plans for a possible Senate
race at a June 26 appearance before the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists
Association’s annual conference in Brooklyn, N.Y. He said becoming chair
of the House financial services committee would give him an unprecedented opportunity
to help shape U.S. policy on a wide range of domestic and international issues,
including housing, banking and urban development. Thus, if Democrats win control
of the House, Frank said, he would forgo a run for the Senate. But most political
observers believe the Republicans are likely to retain control of the House.
Over the objections of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, the Democratic-controlled
Massachusetts Legislature is completing work on a bill to strip Romney of his
authority to appoint someone to fill a vacant Senate seat for a two-year period
before the next scheduled statewide election. The bill would clear the way for
Frank and other Democrats to run for Kerry’s seat in a 2005 special election.
Frank and his domestic partner, Sergio Pombo, marched together on Fifth Avenue
in New York’s June 27 Gay Pride Parade.
BOSTON (AP) — A deeply divided gathering of the nation’s mayors
could not reach consensus Monday on a proposed resolution opposing a federal
constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The U.S. Conference of Mayors voted
46 to 44 to table the resolution, and an attempt to revive it was also defeated,
47 to 45. Stamford, Conn., Mayor Dannel Malloy, a Democrat running for governor,
and an opponent of a constitutional amendment, said he believes the mayors
wanted to avoid the issue in a year many of them are seeking reelection. The
close votes, Malloy said, also indicate “there is no broad-based support
in the nation to amend the Constitution of the United States to discriminate.” The
resolution was co-sponsored by three Democratic mayors — Thomas Menino
of Boston, Richard Daley of Chicago and Gavin Newsom of San Francisco.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — In churches and homes in cities big and small,
the campaign for and against an Aug. 3 ballot measure that would add a gay
marriage ban to the Missouri Constitution is playing out person-to-person instead
of over the air. The proposal, Amendment 2, will offer the nation’s first
statewide vote on same-sex marriage since the highest court in Massachusetts
ordered that state to allow it, sparking a national debate on the issue. While
there may be TV and radio ads in the future, the campaign in Missouri is focused
foremost on getting people to go to the polls — and persuading them to
bring along friends. The Coalition to Protect Marriage in Missouri, a group
supporting the ballot measure, has distributed hundreds of fliers to be placed
in church bulletins around the state. The Constitution Defense League, a group
opposing the amendment, has been holding house parties and campaigning door-to-door
twice weekly in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia and St. Joseph.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Sponsors of an initiative that would ban same-sex
marriage like their chances of getting the proposed constitutional amendment
on Oregon’s fall ballot. The backers said last week that they might submit
as many as 130,000 valid signatures to the state Elections Division. It takes
100,840 signatures to get on the ballot. The extra signatures would provide
a cushion against duplicate names and signatures from unregistered voters.
The signatures are due July 2. “Signatures are pouring in every day,” said
Tim Nashif, political director of the Defense of Marriage Coalition. Nashif,
however, wouldn’t guarantee that his group would gain a spot on the ballot.
The state has been scrutinizing each petition sheet for signing and dating
errors. Recent enforcement of signing and dating requirements has cost sponsors
of other initiatives perhaps thousands of signatures. “We have a team
checking for what we know are the secretary of state’s rules,” Nashif
said.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners backed
off of a ...
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