Monday, February 13, 2012
Gay Marriage Marriage Opponents Already Divided on Referendum
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:28 PM
Pastor Joe Fuiten walked into the Washington Secretary of State's office this morning to file a referendum attempting to overturn the same sex-marriage law that lawmakers passed last week. One problem: Governor Chris Gregoire hadn't signed the bill yet. So election workers turned him away with a 3:30 p.m. appointment to return (after the bill was signed), says Secretary of State's office spokesman David Ammons. Also this morning: Family Policy Institute of Washington director Joseph Backholm waltzed in with his own, separate plans to file a marriage referendum. Same problem, of course.
"I'd heard for a few days that they are not in sync on this," Ammons says.
"It will be interesting to see if they can come to an agreement on running the referendum, otherwise they are dividing their energy and resources," Ammons continues. He points out that, while advocates can file multiple challenges to the same bill, "You cannot combine the signatures form 1, 2, 3, 4 petitions" to qualify for the ballot.
The divisions between anti-gay activists run deep. The somewhat more measured Fuiten, for example, has long feuded with incendiary Pastor Ken Hutcherson. Whereas both men run hardline mega churches on the Eastside, Fuiten spurned the 2009 campaign to overturn a domestic partnership law that Hutcherson and Backholm supported. Fuiten may have ties to the money, though. He announced earlier this month that he'd secured $1 million from an out-of-state donor, who, by all likely calculations, is the Catholic-church-linked National Organization for Marriage.
All that said, divisions in 2009 didn't stop their referendum from making the ballot (ultimately their campaign failed, though). If they make it to the ballot again with this bill—as seems certain with all that Catholic cash—marriage will remain in limbo until the fall election.
We can probably assume they'll muster the signatures like they did for Ref. 71. If they don't, great. If they do, which orgs will be the best ones to support the legislation against the inevitable FUD from NOW/Vatican/LDS?
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Can we get a donate link up on Slog and the front page, Dominic?
He can't have it both ways; vote for my thing and I'll vote for their thing. He needs to stand by the people who REALLY stand by him (not Rodney Tom, a pseudo-Dem).
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He announced earlier this month that he'd secured $1 million from an out-of-state donor, who, by all likely calculations, is the Catholic-church-linked National Organization for Marriage.
The bolded bit is what the legislature needs to attack with maximum lethal force in the next session.
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For example--could someone with standing sue to keep the expected referendum itself off of the ballot, or declared beyond the scope of the referendum process?
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