An analysis of the voting pattern Tuesday in Virginia suggests that the so-called “marriage amendment” on the ballot as Question 1 might have cost U.S. Senator George Allen the election. If true, it would mark an ironic twist, the backfiring of an effort Republicans hoped would spur a stronger turnout for their incumbent.
With results like this I hope we will see the end of using discriminatory amendments to GOTXianV. Additionally Arizona became the first state to reject a marriageban related amendment (see comments). To my deep regret such an amendment passed in WI. Athenae covers that in post below.
(h/tAmericaBlog)
UPDATE: The ban also backfired in WI as Republicans lost control of the state Senate, lost seats in the Assembly and it didn’t help Republican Mark Green’s failed bid for governor. …Click Read more for details—–
FromJSOnline viaAmericaBlog
The controversial amendment easily passed Tuesday, with Wisconsin voters approving the ban by 59% to 41%.
But the measure clearly had an unintended consequence by sparking a larger-than-expected turnout, especially among left-leaning college students, who flooded their campus polling places.
The result: Dems scored some unexpected gains in the Statehouse.
SNIP
Democrats gained control of the Senate by knocking out four Republicans, including longtime Sen. David Zien, who also represents UW-Eau Claire.
SNIP
Sensenbrenner doesn’t disagree with the impact of the amendment on driving up the campus vote. But that’s only part of the story, he said.
By putting the same-sex marriage and death penalty measures on the same ballot, Sensenbrenner said, Republican leaders in the Legislature ended up drawing the wrong type of voter to the polls – Democrats, especially conservative ones. Those people voted for the ballot proposals but against Republican candidates.
His proof: About 275,000 people cast ballots for the ban on same-sex marriages but not for Green.
What’s more, he said, the Republican strategy gave opponents 1½ years to organize and raise millions of dollars.
“It was a lose-lose situation,” Sensenbrenner said. “You had Reagan Democrats and socially conservative union members who wanted to vote yes and yes (on the referendums) and then voted for Doyle.
“And then you had liberals who voted no on both, then voted for Democrats.”—–
Heh. Now *we* get to use marriage amendments to GOTV.
Now I have to go donate to fairnessandequality.org so we can get Colorado’s marriage amendment overturned. Wisconsin’s not alone.
at least we didn’t automatically get the death penalty back, at that didn’t do as well as expected i think.
and and and GARD is GONE. he gave me very bad vibes.
Unfortunately, the Arizona Prop 107 was not a gay marriage ban. That’s already in the state constitution. What it did was ban any arrangement for non-married people that gave any rights of marriage, so your brother and his girlfriend who live together could not have domestic partnership benefits. (Nor could your brother and his boyfriend.) It was defeated when it was fought on the domestic partnership angle. I don’t know what might have happened if it were written to only affect gays, but opponents were smart enough to widen its scope for the public. While I’m happy with some of the results here in Arizona, we DID send Kyl back and we will send McCain back, too, in due course…
One of the best pieces of news about the Wisconsin elections was the elimination of that excremental fascist, Dave Zien, from the Legislature. With him, John Gard and Scott Jensen gone, there’s a possibility of cleaning up that cesspool again.
—Aaaargh, mostly sobered up now.
Was it a rough Wed morning?
Man we has some fun though.
And yes it is great to see that bunch gone