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Gay marriage likely not the presidential issue it once was
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jun 18, 2008 08:50am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Tuesday, June 17, 2008 02:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Four years after it burst onto the national stage, same-sex marriage is back as an election-year issue, thanks to its court-ordered legalization in California.
It could help Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
The potential boost comes from social conservatives, who've been lukewarm about the Arizona senator but might become energized by the issue of marriage and turn out to vote. They're more likely to vote for McCain than Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent.
"It probably helps McCain," independent pollster Brad Coker said. "It probably increases the chances he'll get some additional conservative votes out of it."
Yet it's not as solid a boost as it was for President Bush in 2004, when more Americans opposed gay marriage, and social conservatives surged to polling places to approve constitutional amendments banning it in 13 states, including such pivotal presidential election battlegrounds as Missouri and Ohio.
"This year is very different than 2004," said Joe Solmonese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest advocacy group for gays, lesbians and transgenders.
He said that other issues such as Iraq, the economy and rising gasoline and food prices had pushed marriage down on the national priority list. And Americans have grown somewhat more tolerant of same-sex marriage, he said. |
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