State Dems wrap up convention
LAKE BUENA VISTA - A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Florida is certain to get on the ballot but will lose at the polls if enough voters become worried about its impact on heterosexual couples, campaign strategists told delegates to the state Democratic Party convention Sunday.
"This amendment really has to be the focal point for all Democrats in Florida for 2008," said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, at a briefing on the amendment campaign. "The reason this will be on the ballot has nothing to do with protecting anyone's marriage and everything to do with turning out the most conservative voters in Florida."
Later, about 3,000 party activists wound up a weekend convention with a spirited panel discussion of the 2008 outlook in what both parties concede is a key battleground state. Democrats were upbeat and optimistic, despite the absence of all but one presidential candidate - ex-Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska - because of a national party edict that has stripped Florida of its 210 votes at next summer's presidential nominating convention.
In addition to the Democratic National Committee penalty for Florida's Jan. 29 primary - a week ahead of the allowed date - major presidential contenders signed a pledge not to campaign in the state.
The party's state executive committee formally adopted the list of eight candidates for the Jan. 29 ballot, ignoring a brief effort to add former Vice President Al Gore. Some "draft Gore" petitions and lapel buttons were sold in hallways outside the convention at a mammoth Walt Disney World resort hotel, but Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., had the most supporters - judging from campaign materials distributed and signs waved in the convention audience.
After a Saturday devoted to raw attacks on President Bush's policies and the GOP candidates to succeed him, as well as Florida Republican leaders who had their own convention in Orlando a week earlier, the Democrats spent Sunday discussing strategies. A panel discussion of campaign operatives chaired by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink - the lone Democrat on the State Cabinet - followed a bagels-and-coffee workshop on defeating the gay-marriage ban that is headed for the 2008 ballot.
"This is not a gay amendment," said Michael Albetta of Fort Lauderdale, president of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus. "We have to educate people that this has an impact on fairness and equality for all people."
The amendment defines marriage as a heterosexual union and provides that "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized." Albetta and Nadine Smith of Tampa, executive director of Equality Florida, said the "substantial equivalent" provision could affect tens of thousands of elderly couples who live together without marrying, for pension reasons or family considerations, as well as many non-traditional families.
Efforts to reach John Stemberger, head of the Florida4marriage.org amendment campaign, for comment Sunday were unsuccessful.
Derek Newton, campaign manager for Florida Red & Blue, said the bipartisan coalition fighting the amendment expects it to get on the ballot. He and Bill Vayens, secretary of the GLBT Democratic Caucus, said proponents have about 597,000 of the 611,009 voter signatures required by Feb. 1 to get the amendment on the ballot, but that opponents have a legal team ready to challenge duplicate signatures and some from people not registered to vote, if the margin is close.
"There's an outside chance that it could be kept off the ballot," said Vayens. "But if they're at 597,000 now, we expect that they will have no trouble reaching 611,000 before the deadline."
Once on the ballot, the amendment will require a 60-percent majority at the polls in November 2008.
Smith told the Democratic delegates the amendment is a "wedge issue" that will help Republicans - even though Gov. Charlie Crist has stopped the state GOP's financial support of the campaign. The Florida Republican Party had given $300,000 to the amendment drive before Crist took office in January.
Newton said the amendment almost certainly will get the required signatures and be on next year's ballot. He said polls indicate a very close race in a statewide referendum.
"This amendment is closer to passing at 60 percent than it is to failing at 40 percent, right now," said Newton. "Voters in Florida are very confused about this issue."
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