It would have been easier for Assemblyman Simon Salinas not to
vote for gay marriage. He’d abstained on a similar vote three
months ago, and faces a tough, if yet undeclared, race against Jeff
Denham next year for the 12th Senate district.
It would have been easier for Assemblyman Simon Salinas not to vote for gay marriage. He’d abstained on a similar vote three months ago, and faces a tough, if yet undeclared, race against Jeff Denham next year for the 12th Senate district.
Furthermore, he knew he’d get beaten up politically if he voted in favor, especially since a majority of his constituents voted for Prop. 22 in 2000, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
But when he looked up at the tally board late Tuesday, there were 40 votes in favor, one short of a majority. Of the five votes that remained to be cast, including his, none was a member that had voted in favor of the bill when it last came to the floor.
Then he thought of Marina Gratto.
Marina is a constituent, a teenager too young to vote. Marina has two moms. Before the previous vote, Marina had lobbied Salinas. She asked him to use his power to legitimize her family. When Salinas punted, Marina was distraught.
This time, political consequences notwithstanding, he pressed the green “yes” button.
Steve Presson, a campaign consultant for Sen. Jeff Denham, characterized Denham’s vote last week against the bill as “a vote of conscience” and a “family values” stance. But when asked if Salinas’ vote was not the same thing, he accused Salinas of “thumbing his nose at the will of the voters of the 12th Senate district.”
In politics as in life, there are acts of cynicism and there are acts of conscience. Most believe there are more of the former than the latter. But as long as we refuse to make distinctions and avoid honest debates of conscience, we’re never going to get anywhere.
Here’s an example of how complicated the politics of gay marriage has become that will lead us back to Denham and Salinas:
Art Finkelstein is a legendary Republican political consultant with a Libertarian bent. He was instrumental in Jesse Helms’ razor-thin first victory for a North Carolina U.S. Senate seat in 1972, and is credited by many for turning around Ronald Reagan’s faltering presidential bid in 1980. That same year, he engineered the New York Senate Republican primary victory of Alfonse D’Amato over liberal Jacob Javits. In 1994, he played a key role in Gov. George Pataki’s victory over Mario Cuomo.
Finkelstein’s stock in trade is to attack relentlessly and demonize “liberals,” tactics that paved the way for Karl Rove and the religious attack on equal rights for gays.
Last December Finkelstein, a resident of Ipswich, Mass., finally married his partner of 40 years, with whom he has raised two children. His partner’s name is Don Curialie.
After gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts last year, many state employers canceled domestic partner benefits, arguing that now that gays could marry, they would have to do so to enjoy the same benefits they’d previously enjoyed as domestic partners. This may have played a role in Finkelstein’s choice.
“I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners,” Finkelstein told a New York Times reporter in April.
The impact of gay marriage in Massachusetts, then, was more stable homes – even for the children of Art Finkelstein, who had spent is life promoting a political agenda inimical to his very existence as a human being. That’s cynical.
But Finkelstein is evidence of something else, too: that the struggle over marriage – its definition and benefits – has changed in a short time, and that Presson’s assertion that Denham’s stance is the “family values” stance is no longer self-evident in the sense he believes. The problem is that the politics of the issue remain as ugly as ever.
Because of the 12th district’s Democratic-leaning demographics and the potential that a party switch could produce a veto-proof Democratic Senate majority, the race between Denham and Salinas, who is termed out next year, will likely be the most hotly contested state Senate race of 2006. Furious and spurious charges will be exchanged.
So on this issue, let’s stipulate that both votes on gay marriage – Denham’s vote against and Salinas’ vote in favor – were votes of conscience. Then let’s have a debate on substance, if both sides dare.
John Yewell is the city editor for the Hollister free Lance. Reach him at
jy*****@fr***********.com
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