With 16 months to go before an expected vote on a state constitutional ban on gay marriage, groups on both sides of the issue are gearing up for a major fight....That two-vote requirement is a good safeguard, don't you think?
Both sides expect a large turnout for the vote since several high-profile races will also be on the ballot that November, including the re-election battles of Gov. Jim Doyle, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, all state Assembly representatives and half the state Senate....
Nationally, Wisconsin is considered a bellwether state because ban opponents here will have considerable lead time to mount an aggressive campaign to stop the amendment.
Other states have rushed such amendments to the ballot, but Wisconsin law requires that proposed constitutional amendments win legislative approval twice before winning a place on the ballot....
The Wisconsin legislature has approved the proposed ban once, in March 2004, and would need to pass it again before the end of the legislative session next June.
If the second legislative vote does send the question on to us voters, it will be quite interesting to see how that affects the race for governor and the fight over Kohl's Senate seat. I assume that hot-button issue will provoke a lot of extra people to vote, but it's not clear at all which side of the spectrum will gain more.
No comments:
Post a Comment