Paterson’s Red Herring: Gay Marriage
by Matt at Apr 9th, 2009
With dismal poll numbers and a majority of New Yorkers saying they don’t even want him to run again, Governor David Paterson desperately needs an issue to distract the voters and get them to think about something besides the economy and the budget.
And it appears that issue is gay marriage.
Gov. David Paterson said Wednesday he plans to re-introduce legislation to make same-sex marriages legal in New York.
The legislation is expected to mirror a gay-marriage bill introduced in 2007 by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who - with Paterson as his running mate - campaigned in 2006 on a platform that included marriage equality.
“We’ll put a bill out and let the people decide one way or the other,” Paterson said Wednesday morning on WHCU-AM (870) in Ithaca.
But even with legislation from Paterson, the state Legislature has not signaled the bill would pass both houses. In 2007, the state Assembly passed Spitzer’s marriage bill, but it stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate and remains that way now under Democratic control.
But, what do the people of New York say about gay marriage? Only 41% of New Yorkers support it.
Quinnipiac University polled 1,528 registered voters this month. Participants were given three choices: gay marriage, civil unions or no legal recognition.
One-third said gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not marry; 19 percent believed there should be no legal recognition.
Democrats, Independents, whites and women were the strongest supporters; opposition was strongest among Republicans, men and blacks.
A June 2007 poll showed 35 percent of voters supported gay marriage; 22 percent were against any legal recognition.
The poll’s margin of error is 2.5 percentage points
With only minority support fromthe electorate, and without enough votes for it to pass in the state senate, Paterson’s reintroducing the gay marriage is only serving one purpose: get the voters to stop talking about the budget, which, as I wrote in an article for the American Issues Project, an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers disapprove of.
Paterson is fighting for political survival. The gay marriage issue is dead-on-arrival and thus a waste of time. If Paterson thinks the voters are going to forget how his budget is screwing them over, he is greatly mistaken.