Hi Everyone,
Iowa's major paper (the Des Moines Register) is reporting that a group of pastors from various conservative congregations around Des Moines and central Iowa are pushing for an amendment to the state constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. They are planning to hold a demonstration in support of this effort in late October. You can read the story here. The main spokesman is a pastor from one of the shiny "mega churches" with thousands of members and a highly politicized message.
Iowa is a swing state so look for the Republicans to make this a HUGE deal in 2008. The Democrats will want it to just go away. One sneaky thing the Democrats (who control both branches of the state government) could do, is put something about this on the ballot around primary time. It is not commonly talked about but Iowa does have a primary in addition to its caucus. The primary (to be held on June 3rd, 2008) is mainly for state level candidates. If the Democrats were clever, they could let the Republicans have their little gay bashing ballot initiative but put it on the ballot in June instead of November. If it lost in June, the Bigots For Jesus movement would only have a couple of months to get their act together in time to meeting the filing deadlines for the November election (I believe - I haven't done anything more than a cursory look at the Secretary of State's election schedule). And of course if it lost, the momentum would be against the Bigots for Jesus crowd.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Update on Same Sex Marriage in Iowa
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 7:53 AM
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3 comments:
I like the idea of putting the amendment on the ballot in June. I wonder if the moderates will ever tire of this sort of gay bashing... sigh.
I know I am tired of it. I's like soooooooo 1984. So like yesterday already.
I would think that the yelp at Columbia over the "no gays in Iran" line would have shown the world how disinterested Gen Xers and younger are in the gay issue simply because gaydom isn't taboo anymore.
The idea that the Republicans are still playing that same old song just seems comical.
Republicans have made a decision. They are the party of older, male, rural (or exurban), white, social conservatives who go to evangelical churches. There are quite a lot of people like that in Iowa. We'll see if the suburban fiscal conservatives in Des Moines can shout them down - I doubt it. This is too tempting an issue for them in 2008.
What boomer echo kids (Gen X has long since graduated from college and moved on to being professors) in some Ivy League college think won't even register a blip on the GOP radar. More the fools them.
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