Opponents of gay
marriage launch
all-out N.J. campaign
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
AND JOSH MARGOLIN
From nj.com on the
Web, November 29, 2007
A national campaign to block gay
marriage came to New Jersey this week as conservative groups began airing radio
advertisements and bombarded a key lawmaker's office with as many as 200 phone
calls an hour.
The National Organization for Marriage debuted a radio ad warning "powerful
special-interest groups want to redefine marriage," and the N.J. Family Policy
Council sent out an e-mail urging people to phone legislative leaders and Gov.
Jon Corzine.
Leaders of both organizations said they were trying to block an effort to
legalize same-sex marriage during the lame-duck session of the Legislature that
ends Jan. 8, when new lawmakers are sworn.
Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) yesterday said no vote on same-sex
marriage will be taken during lame duck, but those who fear it had succeeded in
tying up his phone lines.
"At this point, they're just wasting their money with the phone calls.
Somebody's giving them bad information," Codey said. "It's jamming our
phone lines and we can't do our work here." He said his office got as many
as 200 calls per hour. Corzine's office got 133 calls yesterday while
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) got about 200, according to their
press secretaries.
Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State
University, said the anti-gay marriage campaign may be aimed not just at
lawmakers, but at voters casting their ballots in the presidential primary on
Feb. 5.
"This is something that is a wedge issue," Harrison said. "It drives
people to the polls."
But Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of
Virginia, said he doubts the ads are intended to influence the primary, which is
still "a long, long time away."
Leaders of the anti-gay marriage effort said they would be happy if they have a
national impact but their immediate goal is to stop New Jersey from legalizing
same-sex marriage during the lame duck session.
For more than a year, a bill to do so has languished in the Assembly. But
when Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) introduced an identical bill this month,
defenders of traditional marriage took note.
"To me, that triggers an alert," said Len Deo, president of the N.J. Family
Policy Council, which sent e-mails to 3,000 to 4,000 people.
Weinberg said marriage equality for same-sex couples "is something that is
overdue."
"I would certainly push it in the lame duck, and if it doesn't get through in
the lame duck I will be advocating as hard as I can in the new session,"
Weinberg said. She added, however, "I don't have the power to move it."
Codey, who as Senate president does have that power, said, "There's no intention
to do the bill. It's not going to be posted."
Told of that, Deo replied, "I think we nipped something in the bud." Brian
Brown of Princeton, the executive director of the National Organization for
Marriage, said, "If the bill doesn't come up and legislators hear from their
constituents, that's also a success for us. We're going straight to the
public."
Brown declined to say how much his group paid for the radio ads on radio station
NJ 101.5 and its sister station, 97.3 FM, but called it "a substantial buy."
In the ad, a young boy asks: "If my dad married a man, who would be my
mom?" The female narrator warns the "special interests" backing gay
marriage "want your tax dollars to teach your kids -- and your grandkids -- that
your idea of marriage is just bigoted."
Evan Wolfson, executive director of the pro-gay marriage group Freedom to Marry,
said, "I think it's no coincidence that we see these kinds of right-wing,
anti-gay campaigns in election years. They are appealing to their base of
supporters who they hope will turn out and do their political bidding."
(Abridged)
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