The Wall Street Journal on Monday called out the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) for what it calls “deceptive advertising” in its sore-loser campaign entitled “Let the People Vote.”
On Sunday, the first day in which marriage equality became legal in New York, the NOM organized at hot mess of rallies in which thousands (NOM claims 10,000, police estimate about 3,000) of New Yorkers, most of whom were bused in by NOM, marched for the TV cameras chanting “let the people vote.”
NOM President Brian Brown said, “We are determined to let the people of New York have the final say on marriage, just as voters in 31 other states have been able to do.”
But what most traditional marriage supporters don’t know, and NOM isn’t telling them, is that it doesn’t quite work that way in New York.
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New York voters are not going to have the chance to weigh in on the question. Unlike Maine, New York state does not have a procedure for a ballot referendum to veto legislation. Unlike California and Oregon, the Empire State does not permit amendments to its constitution by citizen initiative.
Putting a constitutional amendment on the New York ballot requires an act of the Legislature — or rather two acts, in successive legislative sessions. Thus, for the National Organization for Marriage to have its way, many of the lawmakers who enacted same-sex marriage a month ago would essentially have to reverse themselves. The state Senate approved same-sex marriage 33-29, the Assembly 80-63.
NOM’s “Let the People Vote” campaign is their four year scam plan to whore themselves for more donations overturn marriage equality in New York, and includes:
- Elect pro-marriage majorities in November that will approve a marriage amendment in both the Assembly and Senate during the 2013 legislative session.
- Protect anti-gay marriage candidates in 2014 elections, so that the amendment can be approved in the 2015 legislative session.
- Successfully pass the ballot measure when it goes before voters in November 2015.
The likelihood of NOM being successful at any of those efforts, however, is nil.
While the NOM has promised “to commit at least $2 million in elections in 2012” targeting seven state senators who voted for the Marriage Equality Act last month — four Republicans and 3 Democrats who previously voted “nay” in 2009 — it makes no mention of how it plans to infiltrate the Assembly.
The New York state Assembly is dominated by Democrats, who currently hold a 48-seat majority in the chamber.
The Assembly’s one-man, one-vote apportionment strongly favors the state’s traditional Democratic strongholds of New York City (where the Democrats hold all but two seats), the urban areas of Western New York, and the Capital District.
Democrats have controlled the Assembly since 1975, and have voted in favor of marriage equality four times: In June 2007 by a vote of 85-61; in May 2009 by a vote of 89-52; in December 2009 by a vote of 88-51; and most recently in June 2011.
Finally, following their planned overthrow of both the Senate and the Assembly, the NOM is betting they can be victorious at the ballot box four years from now in a liberal leaning state where support for marriage equality reached a record 58 percent in two independent polls this year, and will likely continue to increase by 2014, as has been both the state and national trends.
