Right Wing Group Confirms: NJ Marriage Equality just "a couple legislators short"

by: Juan Melli

Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 09:35:19 AM EST

Last week Garden State Equality chairman Steven Goldstein projected that they are just a few votes short of a majority in support of marriage equality, with about 19 votes in the Senate and 39 in the Assembly, where 21 and 41, respectively are needed for a majority.

In an email to supporters, Len Deo of the NJ Family Policy Council - a right wing group trying to impose it's extremist theocratic agenda on New Jersey - said that their "own contacts confirm support for the same-sex "marriage" bill is a couple legislators short."

That huge admission must be discouraging to his followers, but Deo assures them "we will continue to fight the good fight," a political euphemism for "we're going to lose."

Juan Melli :: Right Wing Group Confirms: NJ Marriage Equality just "a couple legislators short"

FROM: Len Deo
THANK YOU - FOR CONTACTING YOUR LEGISLATORS
UPDATE: NJ SAME SEX "MARRIAGE" BILL --- DORMANT for NOW
GREAT NEWS! Thanks to your many calls and e-mails as well as many calls from concerned citizens throughout the country, it looks as though there are NO further plans to move the same-sex "marriage" bill in the NJ Legislature before the year's end. I cannot express enough from the bottom of my heart all the help and mobilization efforts by our NJ Family Policy Council and NJ Family First constitutents as well as our friends at Focus on the Family Action, Family Research Council Action, the Trenton Group, and the National Organization for Marriage.
Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) was quoted in the Star Ledger yesterday saying that "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." 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.
Steven Goldstein, Executive Director of the same-sex activist group Garden State Equality stated that he made a conscious decision to "rope-a-dope" the right wing to exhaust itself silly during this lame duck session. RIGHT! Well Mr. Goldstein, why did you move ahead to introduce the Senate companion bill in the lame duck? Perhaps you thought we would be too busy preparing to celebrate Christmas, but you were wrong! Redefining marriage is wrong and we will continue to fight the good fight until we see a state constitutional amendment defining marriage in NJ as the union between one man and one woman only. Same-Sex marriage bill sponsor NJ Senator Loretta Weinberg (D) was also quoted as saying "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."
We at the NJ Family Policy Council and NJ Family First believe that we "nipped something in the bud." Although Goldstein and our own contacts confirm support for the same-sex "marriage" bill is a couple legislators short, that's no guarantee they couldn't change their minds. Let us not forget what happened in Massachusetts with regard to legislators changing their minds at the last minute. Regarding Senate President Codey's media announcement that the bill would not get posted, Brian Brown, the executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, Princeton, NJ said, "If the bill doesn't come up and legislators hear from their constituents, that's also a success for us." The Bergen Record's Opinion Editor Alfred Doblin also rightly assessed the current situation today in his column warning, "It's a mistake to overestimate the grass-roots support for same-sex marriage in New Jersey. Opposition to it has never fully materialized here because it has not been a legislative issue." We couldn't agree more!
We will continue to carefully monitor this issue on your behalf as the year comes to a close and IF anything changes will contact you ASAP. In the meantime we wish you and all your families a wonderful, joyous Christmas!
THANKS AGAIN for making a difference!
Len Deo
President
NJ Family Policy Council

Tags: marriage equality, NJ Family Policy Council, Steven Goldstein, Len Deo, (All Tags)

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Right Wing Group Confirms: NJ Marriage Equality just "a couple legislators short" | 7 comments

"They're Closing the Washington Monument!" SEND US MONEY!!! (0.00 / 0)

This is fundraising hype--nothing more, nothing less. In order for these types of appeals to work, you have to make it sound like the world is about to end, but victory is still salvageable--BUT ONLY IF YOU SEND US MONEY NOW!!!!!!!!

by: Creed Pogue @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 14:44:51 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Re: (4.00 / 1)

There was no ask for money and no link to a contribution page. They're just scared.

by: Juan Melli @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 15:23:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's not just Len Deo who thinks we'll win - it's also James Dobson (4.00 / 1)

Here's what national right-winger James Dobson told 3,000 people at the so-called Family Values Summit in October:

"The New Jersey state legislature now has the votes to create same-sex marriage. If New Jersey legislators vote for marriage and aren't punished at the polls, same-sex marriage will spread to Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, and California."

This was no fundraising appeal. As for Deo designing his statement for fundraising, there are many ways to rile up the base, as people on both sides on any issue know, without going so far as to admit you've all but lost the battle. Yeah, one wants to rile up the base, but if you admit all-but-defeat, you scare money away, too.

by: Steven Goldstein, Garden State Equality chair @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 17:23:29 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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This is mutually reinforcing distraction. n/t (3.00 / 1)

by: Creed Pogue @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 17:50:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

By the way (4.00 / 1)

More proof of where Deo is wrong in his email. If our side intended ever to push the bill through this lame duck - so help me, 2008 has always been our aim, because we've know the count would be way more in our favor - we would have introduced a bit different bill than that actually introduced. We'd have to include a section on what to do with existing civil unions - do they automatically become marriages, or do existing civil-unioned couples still have to get married? What happened in lame duck is that Loretta and Ray introduced in the Senate the bill Reed Gusciora introduced in the Assembly last year during the post-Supreme Court decision period but before the legislature acted on civil unions. The right-wing won't believe this, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar: Loretta and Ray, two incredible legislators, two incredible progressives, believe marriage equality is the right thing and they wanted to go on the legislative record with that, period.

by: Steven Goldstein, Garden State Equality chair @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 18:11:30 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Is it just me? (4.00 / 2)

Or is there something vaguely anti-semitic intended by this line?:

"Well Mr. Goldstein, why did you move ahead to introduce the Senate companion bill in the lame duck? Perhaps you thought we would be too busy preparing to celebrate Christmas, but you were wrong!"

by: Jeff Gardner @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 19:52:01 PM UTC

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Unfortunately... (0.00 / 0)

I think it is just another comment on the "Christmas Wars." You know, that effort on the part of non-Christians and insufficiently-fervent-Christians to remove Christmas from the calendar.

Although, it is true that in Mr. Deo's view, Steven is going to Hell.

by: Creed Pogue @ Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 20:21:33 PM UTC

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