The National Organization for Marriage this week launched its first strike in a $2 million retaliation campaign against seven New York state senators that it says “were responsible for the imposition of same-sex marriage in New York.”
The anti-gay organization announced Tuesday it was spending $150,000 on mailings targeting GOP Senators Mark Grisanti, Roy McDonald, James Alesi and Stephen Saland, and Democratic Senators Shirley Huntley, Joseph Addabbo and Carl Kruger.
The campaign compares the pro-marriage equality lawmakers to the legendary Revolutionary War traitor Benedict Arnold.
“This is the first step in what will be a sustained, determined effort to make sure the constituents of these cowardly Senators know what they have done,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president.
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Following passage of the Marriage Equality Act in the New York state legislature on June 24, the NOM unveiled its strategy to overturn marriage equality in New York, which 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.
It’s unlikely that NOM would succeed in any, or all, of these efforts.
Two independent polls in New York this year indicated support for marriage equality at 58 percent, the highest in the state’s history. The Quinnipiac University poll also reported that a “record low” of 36 percent of New Yorkers were opposed. The results matched a Siena Research Institute poll in April.
Of course, NOM’s real intent here is to keep donations flowing by continuing to spread, fear, hate and bigotry.
