Locke’s Veto Of Gay Marriage Ban Stands Senate Vote Splits Along Party Lines; Presenting Ban As Referendum Is Next

The Senate on Wednesday failed to override Gov. Gary Locke’s veto of a bill to ban same-sex marriage. The Legislature now will consider another measure to send the issue directly to the voters.

The 26-20 vote to override fell well short of the required two-thirds needed to help undo Locke’s veto.

The vote in the Republican-controlled chamber was strictly along party lines, a change from when the bill was first voted on two weeks ago. Then, seven of the Senate’s 23 Democrats joined all 26 Republicans in favor of the bill, enough to override. Locke vetoed the measure last week.

“The vote the other time showed an override might be possible, but you knew they would support their governor,” said Sen. Eugene Prince, R-Thornton.

Senate Bill 5398 defined marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and would not have allowed same-sex marriages performed elsewhere to be recognized in Washington state.

No state, including Washington, allows people of the same gender to marry. Hawaii courts have upheld same-sex marriages, but the issue is on appeal. The U.S. Constitution requires that marriages performed in one state must be honored in all states.

Congress recently passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to declare themselves off limits to same-gender marriages, regardless of where they are performed. Earlier this month, Mississippi became the 17th state in the past year to ban same-sex marriages.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, said his chamber will vote, possibly by Friday, on a bill to send the issue to voters in November as a referendum. A referendum bypasses the governor’s desk.

Ballard previously said there weren’t enough votes in the House to override Locke. The bill passed the House 63-35, three votes shy of two-thirds.

There was some question about whether the Senate could find the 25 votes needed to put the issue on the ballot. Prince, who voted for the override, said he would oppose a referendum on the issue, and said he knows of other GOP senators who feel the same way.

“The past experience is that this can get very nasty,” Prince said. “It isn’t necessary, it isn’t legal now anyway and it’s not urgent.”

The failed override vote came after brief debate in which Democratic Sen. Adam Kline from Seattle called the measure cruel.

“It’s meant to kick gays in the face,” he said. “They are going to have to run this as a referendum. So then it will go to the people and the governor can’t do anything about it.”

“The members on the other side of the aisle pretended to support it last week and didn’t have the conviction to support it today,” said Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver. “Did they know the governor was going to veto it? Did they vote for it so they could appear to be for the bill?”

In a veto message to the Republican-controlled state Legislature last week, Locke said: “Our overarching principle should be to promote civility, mutual respect and unity. This legislation fails to meet this test.”

Sen. Michael Heavey, D-Seattle, said a governor’s “decision should be respected unless a bill is overwhelmingly against your principles.”

Heavey said that in 11 years he has voted only once to override a governor’s veto and he is sorry he did it.

In the original Feb. 12 Senate vote, the solid bloc of Republicans were joined by Rosa Franklin of Tacoma, Calvin Goings of Puyallup, Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam, Mary Margaret Haugen of Camano Island, Valoria Loveland of Pasco, Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville and Lena Swanson of Bremerton.

This time, three Democrats did not vote, including Darlene Fairley of Lake Forest Park, Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam and Lorraine Wojahn of Tacoma.