Over the weekend, the Massachusetts Democrats did in fact add a pro-same-sex-marriage plank to their platform. At their convention, they changed from the squishy rights-for-all stuff to saying what they mean.
Now we can see how it plays in the suburbs and exurbs. This is a state that has long elected Republican governors and has herds of moderate and conservative voters out there who call themselves Democrats and who send donkeys to the legislature.
One of the three (two announced) gubernatorial candidates there still tried to play all sides. As attorney general, Tom Reilly loved bucking Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. On gay marriage, he relished saying it was the law of the land after last May, and he'd enforce the law.
At the convention, he wouldn't say. However, he personally favors civil unions.
Another candidate, Deval Patrick came out strongly in favor of same-sex marriage. He also has law credentials, as former U.S. assistant attorney general.
The other likely candidate, Secretary of State William Galvin, didn't have to declare. He has not formally announced his run.
The plank vote was by voice and nearly unanimous. A few "no" pips here and there offered scant opposition.
2 comments:
Just FYI, there wasn't a vote on each plank in the platform. The platform was voted on as a whole. Therefore, there's no way to be sure that any no votes were the result of the new gay marriage language. People may have been voting no because the leadership removed the foreign policy plank from the platform -- something a lot of people were angry about -- much moreso than the addition of the equal marriage language.
Also, since there was no real schedule, it was not clear at the time of the voting if any of the amendments had gotten enough signatures. Some people might have voted no on the entire platform not realizing that the vote on the amendments was coming up after.
That's possible. I wasn't there and no one that I know of polled the delegates individually.
However, there were 2,538 registered delegates and when they had the chance to oppose the platform or single planks, none objected or spoke out against the same-sex marriage one.
It's likely that those who were against it had their say with party big shots before the convention. Others, like John Kerry, spoke to newspapers before but did not attend.
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