Definition of marriage amendment may be special election casualty
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Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck is reporting that the results of two recent special elections could make it easier for opponents of a bill to put the definition of marriage to a constitutional vote, to stall the legislation at the Capitol.
On Tuesday, DFLer Tarryl Clark won the race to fill the unexpired term of Sen. Dave Kleis. Kleis was a "yes" vote in 2005 when supporters of the amendment tried to force it out of a Senate committee, a vote they lost by 3 votes.
Sen. David Gaither's seat (he's gone on to become Gov. Pawlenty's chief of staff) also went to the DFL and Gaither, too, was a "yes" vote.
The question now is whether these special elections were at all a referendum on the issue. It doesn't appear so since economic and transportation issues seemed to dominate the low-scale campaigns. And the issue certainly isn't going to go away despite the longer odds in the Senate. As Laura McCallum reported last month, Republicans have a lot to gain by pushing it.
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