Remember how some
Democrats blamed LGBT people's push for
marriage equality for the 2004 election results?
Perhaps gays are now owed an apology.
The effort to defeat
Virginia's proposed constitutional amendment to ban
same-sex marriage apparently pulled thousands
of progressive voters out to the polls,
sending Democrat James Webb to the U.S. Senate by
the thinnest of margins and handing the upper
chamber to the Democrats for the next two years. A
10-to-1 spending edge by gays and their allies
depressed the final majority in favor of the
amendment to 57%, a far cry from the 75% support
that has typified amendment election results in the past.
A glance at the six
most populous left-of-center counties and
urban areas tells the story. Roughly 588,000
people voted on the marriage amendment in these
regions, with nearly 60%, or about 350,000,
people voting no. The other two relatively
uncontroversial ballot measures passed handily. But
they passed without the participation of
roughly 25,000 voters who weighed in on the marriage
amendment but took no stand on the other questions
one way or another.
Did those voters also
vote for James Webb? It appears they did. Webb
won the six regions 64%-36%, taking 377,000
out of 593,000 Senate votes cast in these locations.
Statewide, Webb beat
incumbent George Allen 1,175,606 to 1,166,277,
a difference of fewer than 10,000 votes.
(Ann Rostow, The Advocate)
