Weld says
same-sex marriage "offends New Yorkers"

Former Massachusetts governor William Weld said Thursday that he doesn't want to be addressed as "Governor Weld" anymore--unless he wins New York's gubernatorial election next year. "I plan to run as 'Mister,' if I can make that stick, to emphasize that I've got to earn this," he said after his first meeting with state Republican Party officials vetting the candidates. Weld said his closed-door session with state GOP chairman Stephen Minarik and several county chairs at a Rockland County hotel was "low-key." But Minarik and Erie County chairman Robert Davis were enthusiastic. Half a dozen other potential candidates were interviewed, as were all the GOP candidates for U.S. Senate. Weld said the party chairs asked him about his positions on several issues and that his support for abortion rights is "not everybody's dish of tea." But he told them he also favors a ban on what anti-abortion activists call "partial-birth abortion," sees no need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons, and, although he supports "100% equality of rights," he would not favor same-sex marriage because the idea offends many New Yorkers. The Republican nominee is expected to face Democratic state attorney general Eliot Spitzer, and in the last reported poll Spitzer led Weld 56% to 19%. (AP)