Vote Is Today On Gay Marriage Ban

Washington lawmakers plan today to authorize a November statewide vote on a ban on gay marriages - amid renewed efforts by some Democrats in the Legislature to pass the ban now and avoid a potentially messy campaign.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, and Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, told a joint news conference Tuesday that majority Republicans are willing to work with Democrats who disagree with the governor on this issue.

Democratic Gov. Gary Locke said Friday he is prepared to veto the ban for the second year in a row if lawmakers send it to him. Some Democrats, including House Minority Leader Marlin Appelwick of Seattle, said they thought they had convinced Locke simply to let the bill become law without his signature.

The Democrats’ thinking: The ban is so popular among voters that it surely would pass in November anyway. By enacting the ban during the legislative session, it would not become a ballot-box issue.

The gay-rights community suffered a 60 percent rejection of an initiative last fall to ban employment discrimination against homosexuals.

Activists were divided in their advice to Locke on the marriage issue, although most groups advised a veto.

Now, the strategy by some Democrats is to join a solid bloc of Republicans in overriding a Locke veto. That would take two-thirds votes in both houses. Republicans have a 26-23 majority in the Senate and a 57-41 edge in the House.

Ballard said it looks “very promising” for an override, but he and McDonald said their first order of business will be to push through a guaranteed public vote on the issue.

If the veto is overridden later, then the referendum would be canceled.

“I don’t want to get in a position where nothing happens,” Ballard said when asked why the Republicans don’t hold off on a vote until the strategy becomes clearer. “If it will work the other way (as a veto override), then great.”

Said McDonald: “This is a mainstream concept - people think that a marriage ought to be defined as one man and one woman. That’s where the voters are coming from.”

Appelwick told reporters that Democrats are unhappy that Locke is working closely with the majority Republicans on a variety of issues but often overlooks his own party members.

But Locke told reporters he’s had only informal talks with individual Republicans who have made appointments to see him. He said he will try to include Democrats when he gets into talks on the main bills of this session, as he said he did last year on issues such as welfare and juvenile justice.