Boise senator targeted for his gay-marriage vote

BOISE – A former Idaho Senate chaplain and his conservative religious organization are targeting Boise Sen. John Andreason for his vote against the anti-gay marriage amendment to the Idaho Constitution, which failed earlier in the 2005 session.

The Rev. Bryan Fischer, who served as Senate chaplain in 2001, said his Keep the Commandments Coalition distributed literature critical of Andreason to about one-third of legislative District 15 last weekend. Fischer characterizes the effort as “voter education.”

“We want to make every constituent in District 15 aware of Sen. Andreason’s vote against the marriage amendment,” Fischer said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Eight Republicans and six Democrats voted against the amendment, which would have needed a two-thirds majority to pass out of the Senate.

Fischer, who is pastor of Community Church of the Valley but does political work through the Boise-based coalition, said his organization is focusing on Andreason because he is the only local Republican who voted against the legislation.

“Sen. Andreason is a fine man. This is nothing about his integrity. He just came down on the wrong side of the issue,” Fischer said.

The amendment would have invalidated any type of marriage or civil union except between one man and one woman. Idaho already has a law prohibiting other types of marriages. The bill would have elevated it to constitutional status.

Andreason said Monday that he feels he is being singled out mainly because he’s an easy target — his legislative district is the smallest in the state.

Although he said Fischer’s work against him is a sacred part of the American political process, he strongly disagreed with Fischer’s conclusion that he is against traditional marriage.

“It’s absurd to say that. I’ve been married for more than 50 years — more than anyone in the Senate. All of my four children are in traditional marriages,” Andreason said. “They are trying to overwhelmingly focus the discussion in the next election on this subject instead of critical issues, like education, transportation, water and clean air. These are items of real importance to the people of my district.”

When the 2005 session got under way, Idaho was one of the battleground states in the ongoing nationwide debate over whether to allow same-sex marriage. The current fight started in 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that gays had a constitutional right to wed.

Since then, 11 states have passed constitutional amendments against same-sex marriage, and the issue was a key component of President Bush’s presidential re-election campaign, despite the quiet opposition of his own running mate, Vice President Dick Cheney.

Backers of Idaho’s constitutional amendment say they will be back again next year. And before then, they may turn their attention to other senators who voted against their initiative.