Election turnout rekindles push for gay marriage ban
BOISE – Strong turnout among conservative voters this week has emboldened advocates of a constitutional ban on gay marriage in Idaho, and they could have a significant impact on the 2006 political landscape.
They are convinced Tuesday’s message from voters was clear: Social issues are on center stage, and the maneuvering that foiled an anti-gay marriage proposal last March will no longer be tolerated.
Legislative leaders agree that if a proposed constitutional ban is pushed in the 2005 session it will likely be approved for a public vote in 2006, and that could mean the battalions of conservative voters who turned out in force for President Bush on Tuesday could return two years from now.
Not only was the Idaho electorate half Republican, it was heavily conservative and deeply religious, and they felt Bush was in line with them, exit polling showed.
“He’s moral, he’s strong on defense, he’s honest,” said Elizabeth Beus, 48, whose family runs a dairy in Kuna.
The survey showed that four of every 10 Idaho voters, who turned out in record numbers on Tuesday, identified themselves as conservative, evangelical or born-again Christians, and 90 percent of them voted Republican.
“I’m a strong Christian,” said rural Ada County homemaker Tracy Vanderstelt, 54. “I feel very strongly about where our country is headed on moral issues.”
It’s voters like Beus and Vanderstelt that state Sen. Jerry Sweet, R-Meridian, is counting on when he mounts a new offensive, likely this winter, to secure the required two-thirds vote in both the Senate and House to put the constitutional gay marriage ban on the 2006 ballot.
“I am certainly committed to sponsoring and making sure a Defense of Marriage Amendment passes in Idaho,” Sweet said.
Voter approval of similar amendments by wide margins last Tuesday in 11 states, including neighboring Oregon and Utah, should break down any persisting barriers, he suggested.
One of the biggest barriers removed itself last spring when Republican state Sen. Sheila Sorensen of Boise retired, opening up her post as chairman of the State Affairs Committee, which handles legislation on so-called social issues.
It was Sorensen’s opposition to the House-passed constitutional amendment that thwarted a vote by the full Senate last March. In using procedural maneuvers to sidetrack it, she said the state already had a law banning gay marriage and cited GOP U.S. Rep. Michael Simpson’s contention that state bans, statutory or constitutional, may run afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
With Sorensen out of the picture, Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes of Soda Springs said he expects the proposal to reach the full Senate for a vote this winter but refuses to speculate on the outcome.
Opponents believe they can get the votes needed to block passage, though they believe it will be harder now. Supporters think they have the upper hand.
“I don’t think it will be as easy for people to fall back on that politically correct stuff that kind of tended to just shut the door on debate,” said Julie Lynde of the conservative Cornerstone Institute.