Opponents of gay marriage launch all-out N.J. campaign
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG AND JOSH MARGOLIN
Star-Ledger Staff

A national campaign to block gay marriage came to New Jersey this week as conservative groups began airing radio advertisements and bombarded a key lawmaker's office with as many as 200 phone calls an hour.

The National Organization for Marriage debuted a radio ad warning "powerful special-interest groups want to redefine marriage," and the N.J. Family Policy Council sent out an e-mail urging people to phone legislative leaders and Gov. Jon Corzine.

Leaders of both organizations said they were trying to block an effort to legalize same-sex marriage during the lame-duck session of the Legislature that ends Jan. 8, when new lawmakers are sworn.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) yesterday said no vote on same-sex marriage will be taken during lame duck, but those who fear it had succeeded in tying up his phone lines.

"At this point, they're just wasting their money with the phone calls. Somebody's giving them bad information," Codey said. "It's jamming our phone lines and we can't do our work here." He said his office got as many as 200 calls per hour. Corzine's office got 133 calls yesterday while Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) got about 200, according to their press secretaries.

Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University, said the anti-gay marriage campaign may be aimed not just at lawmakers, but at voters casting their ballots in the presidential primary on Feb. 5.

"This is something that is a wedge issue," Harrison said. "It drives people to the polls."

But Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said he doubts the ads are intended to influence the primary, which is still "a long, long time away."

Leaders of the anti-gay marriage effort said they would be happy if they have a national impact but their immediate goal is to stop New Jersey from legalizing same-sex marriage during the lame duck session.

For more than a year, a bill to do so has languished in the Assembly. But when Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) introduced an identical bill this month, defenders of traditional marriage took note.

"To me, that triggers an alert," said Len Deo, president of the N.J. Family Policy Council, which sent e-mails to 3,000 to 4,000 people.

Weinberg said marriage equality for same-sex couples "is something that is overdue."

"I would certainly push it in the lame duck, and if it doesn't get through in the lame duck I will be advocating as hard as I can in the new session," Weinberg said. She added, however, "I don't have the power to move it."

Codey, who as Senate president does have that power, said, "There's no intention to do the bill. It's not going to be posted."

Told of that, Deo replied, "I think we nipped something in the bud." Brian Brown of Princeton, the executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, said, "If the bill doesn't come up and legislators hear from their constituents, that's also a success for us. We're going straight to the public."

Brown declined to say how much his group paid for the radio ads on radio station NJ 101.5 and its sister station, 97.3 FM, but called it "a substantial buy."

In the ad, a young boy asks: "If my dad married a man, who would be my mom?" The female narrator warns the "special interests" backing gay marriage "want your tax dollars to teach your kids -- and your grandkids -- that your idea of marriage is just bigoted."

Evan Wolfson, executive director of the pro-gay marriage group Freedom to Marry, said, "I think it's no coincidence that we see these kinds of right-wing, anti-gay campaigns in election years. They are appealing to their base of supporters who they hope will turn out and do their political bidding."

Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay advocacy group Garden State Equality, said its goal is marriage equality for same-sex couples, but not during the lame duck session. "We see it happening in 2008," Goldstein said. "The incoming Legislature is even better on marriage equality than the outgoing one."