MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP)
Nov 5 2009, 9:39 AM |
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Although New Jersey's election produced an about-face in the governor's office on the gay marriage issue, both sides of the debate have been readying for a post-election battle in the Legislature.
Gay marriage advocates have regularly launched their campaigns in the lame-duck sessions between Tuesday elections and Jan. 12, when the session ends. But if New Jersey, one of a handful of states that offers civil unions, is going to adopt a law to legalize gay marriage anytime soon, lawmakers need to act quickly.
While Democratic Governor Corzine has said he would sign a gay marriage bill into law, Republican Chris Christie, who unseated Corzine on Tuesday, has said he would veto it as governor.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, a Camden Democrat who supports gay marriage, said Wednesday that he would only bring the issue up for debate if there appeared to be enough votes to pass it.
Len Deo, president of the socially conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council, said it seemed the Assembly would have enough votes to approve a gay marriage bill, but the vote would be close in the Senate.
The state's largest gay rights organization, Garden State Equality, launched two television commercials Wednesday to make its case for allowing gay marriage. Chairman Steven Goldstein said Corzine's defeat doesn't hurt Garden State Equality's cause because the election seemed to turn on economic issues, not social policy.
"You get ready for the possibility that he would not win, having absolutely nothing to do with marriage equality," he said.
Christie has said that if a law to allow gay marriage is passed before he takes office, he would support a state constitutional amendment to overturn it.
With the adoption of a constitutional amendment Tuesday in Maine, gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote.
Still, Patrick Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, isn't optimistic about getting a similar measure on the New Jersey ballot if the Legislature passes a gay marriage law.
To get on the ballot, a proposed amendment would need support from the majority of both legislative chambers in two consecutive sessions — or 60 percent of both houses in one term. Brannigan said that's unlikely with no major changes in the makeup of the Legislature.
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