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What to watch today in marriage equality
February 13, 2012
By Jacob Combs
After the whirlwind of marriage equality developments that took place last week, this week shows no signs of slowing down that momentum. Here are the two big marriage quality events to watch today.
First, at 12 p.m. EST, the New Jersey Senate will debate and vote on a proposed marriage equality bill. Senate President Steve Sweeney, speaking on public radio last Friday, expressed confidence that the votes were there in his chamber to pass the bill, although it is still uncertain if there are enough senators committed to override Gov. Chris Christie’s promised veto. A link to the video feed for the New Jersey Senate can be found here.
Also today, at 11:30 a.m. PST, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire will sign marriage equality into law. Video of that event can be found on TVW. As in New Jersey, the course of equal rights will likely not run smooth. The law is not scheduled to go into effect until June 7, but if opponents of marriage equality gather the 120,000 signatures required by June 6 to place a referendum on the ballot (which they are expected to succeed at), it will be suspended until after the election. A separate anti-marriage equality initiative has also been filed, which would require 241,153 signatures to be collected before July 6 to qualify. (In an intriguing twist of timing, the extremely anti-gay GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum will be in Washington today, and plans to meet with marriage equality opponents.)
We’ll have an update here at P8TT about the vote in the New Jersey Senate later today!
Filed under: Marriage equality
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19 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Ann S. | February 13, 2012 at 8:58 am
§
2.
karen in kalifornia | February 13, 2012 at 9:29 am
120K signatures is nothing.
I know it's been discussed so sorry for asking again, what is the difference in WA state between a the strenght of a referendum vs an initiative?
3.
AnonyGrl | February 13, 2012 at 9:47 am
A referendum would simply overturn the law that the Governor signs today. An initiative would create a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man/one woman.
The worse of the two for us at the moment would be the referendum, if it passes, because that will invalidate the law before it ever comes into play.
An initiative would NOT overturn the law, which would go into effect on June 7th, until after the next ballot, which is in November. If that were to happen, the Prop 8 ruling from the 9th would come into play, declaring that granting equal rights then taking them away is against the US Constitution.
4.
Jacob | February 13, 2012 at 10:09 am
And it passes in the New Jersey Senate, 24-16.
5.
EricKoszyk | February 13, 2012 at 10:13 am
What is the number needed to overturn a veto?
6.
peterplumber | February 13, 2012 at 10:15 am
The last referendum by the H8ers was R-71 in 2009. This referendum was to put an end to new rights & responsibilities to the states already established domestic partnership laws which had been added by SB 5688. They needed to gather 120,577 valid signatures. They turned in 137,881 signatures to the Washington Secretary of State's office. There was not enough margin of error to automatically qualify the ref. for ballot, so they had to verify each & every signature. In the end, only 121,757 were officially verified.
There were lots of dirty tricks in that campaign. For instance, Washington state law mandates that when a measure already signed into law is put up for a referendum, voters vote either "approved" to confirm the law or "rejected" to oppose it. Thus, although the petition to put this law to a vote was circulated by its opponents, the ballot wording is such that voters vote in the affirmative to approve the law or in the negative to reject it.
7.
peterplumber | February 13, 2012 at 10:15 am
Then the H8ers wanted to keep the signatures hidden from the public. Washington law states that petition signatures are public information and are normally available to anyone who asks. But the H8ers are so scared that the Homo's will hurt them, they sued to keep the signatures private. It took several year, but they lost in the Supreme court and the signatures are now out in the open.
I am anxious to see what type of shenanigans will be involved this time.
Oh, by the way, R-71 was rejected and SB5688 became law. The margin was 53% to 47%. Seven counties voted to keep SB 5688 as law, and 28 counties voted to kill the bill. The seven were the most populated (and most liberal) counties, including King County in which Seattle is located. I am expecting similar results this time around.
8.
Sam_Handwich | February 13, 2012 at 10:15 am
24-16 <<< Is that veto proof?
9.
peterplumber | February 13, 2012 at 10:16 am
WOOT!!!
10.
peterplumber | February 13, 2012 at 10:21 am
23:2. Absolute Veto – Senate Bills.
On or after the third day following the return of a bill absolutely vetoed by the Governor,
the Senate may move to override the veto. If 27 or more Senators vote to override the veto, the
override shall pass the Senate.
If the motion to override passes, the President shall certify:
! the date the bill was returned to the Senate by the Governor with objections;
! that the objections were entered in the Journal;
! the date the Senate passed the motion to override the veto; and
! the tally on the vote to override.
The passed bill, together with the President's certification and Governor's objections, shall
be sent to the General Assembly.
11.
Bill S. | February 13, 2012 at 10:27 am
No. 27 votes are needed to override a veto.
12.
Steve | February 13, 2012 at 10:30 am
They somehow need to get 3 more votes for that :s
13.
Frisky1 | February 13, 2012 at 10:39 am
It should be noted in New Jersey that two Republicans voted for marriage equality, and two Democrats voted against it.
Republican Jennifer Beck was a strong sponsor of the bill, mostly (I think) because she's in a district with quite a few gay people (Asbury Park and environs). Some of you may remember her predecessor Sean Kean who gave a passionate speech about how he had many gay friends who contributed to the wonderful quality of life in his district, and then declared that he would, and proceeded to, vote against marriage equality. He decided to return to the Assembly after that.
Republican Diane Allen in Burlington is more of a surprise although she does have some Democratic towns in her district and has given indications that she would vote yes before. She missed the vote two years ago when she was out for health reasons.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/gay_marr…
14.
EricKoszyk | February 13, 2012 at 10:42 am
So who are the two Democrats and do they have a primary opponent we can donate to?
15.
bythesea | February 13, 2012 at 10:46 am
Sounds like an override (especially since apparently they will have until January of 2014 to come up with the votes to do so) is not so out of reach. Only three more votes in the Senate and we will have to see on the vote in the other House of the legislature to see what the totals look like there.
16.
bythesea | February 13, 2012 at 10:50 am
This is encouraging. I think there are likely another three votes that could be persuadable if it comes to that (though I'm hoping that Christie will still decide to let it become law without his signature in the end if it looks like the votes for override are potentially attainable).
17.
Frisky1 | February 13, 2012 at 10:53 am
From the article: Two Democrats, Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) and Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), voted no.
I'd have to check but who knows if either is up for reelection this year. Since the NJ legislature has 2 years to override Christie's veto, I'd guess that they're all staying in place until at least that 2 years is up?
18.
Bob | February 13, 2012 at 11:11 am
woot woot to getting it to pass,,,,, that's a win,,,,
19. Prop 8 Trial Tracker &raq&hellip | February 13, 2012 at 5:43 pm
[...] today’s marriage equality developments demonstrate, the marriage movement is wise to focus its attention on state legislatures, where real [...]
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