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)
