Flag-Burning Foes Turn Up Heat Opponents Have Poll Showing State Support For Amendment

Backers of a ban on flag-burning turned up the heat on Washington’s two U.S. senators Wednesday, producing a poll that shows broad home state support for a proposed amendment to the Constitution.

Supporters of a 28th Amendment say they’re within two or three votes of winning the necessary two-thirds supermajority in the U.S. Senate, and that Washington’s two senators, particularly Democrat Patty Murray, could be pivotal.

Officials of the Citizens Flag Alliance, a group of veterans organizations, the Grange and other backers, said they’re on a barnstorm tour of seven or eight states to try to generate public pressure on senators who are uncommitted.

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., has informally indicated he’ll vote for the constitutional amendment, but hasn’t sealed his commitment by signing on as a co-sponsor, said the coalition’s director, Marty Justis. Murray hasn’t announced her position, he said.

Gorton “wholeheartedly supports the amendment,” spokeswoman Heidi Kelly said from Washington, D.C. Murray’s office did not return calls for comment.

The amendment would authorize Congress and the states to approve flag-burning bans. The U.S. House, with the support of six of the seven Republican members from Washington state, approved the measure 312-120 in June. If the Senate goes along, the amendment would require ratification by 38 states.

Washington is one of 49 states that petitioned Congress to pass the amendment and send it to the states.

The bottom line: The anti-flag desecration amendment is popular, winning majorities among both political parties and independents.

The poll showed 59 percent of the respondents strongly or somewhat supportive, versus 33 percent opposed and the rest undecided. Self-identified Republicans backed the measure by 70 percent, independents 64 percent and Democrats 53 percent. Those in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett media market backed it with a 57 percent favorable vote, well below the Spokane, Yakima and Portland media markets, at 76 percent, 75 percent and 67 percent, respectively.