New Jersey's
governor last weekend vowed to sign a marriage equality bill
but said he would not seek one in an election year, while
California's governor did get such a bill but kept
quiet about it as he exhorted fellow Republicans
toward centrism.
New Jersey
governor Jon Corzine on Sunday called same-sex marriage in
his state inevitable but said it "won't be on my
agenda" until after the 2008 presidential election for
fear it would be used as a wedge issue by the right
wing, New York's Gay City News reported.
"I don't think
I'd like to see this debated in a presidential
election year," the paper quoted Corzine, a Democrat, as
telling members of the National Lesbian and Gay
Journalists Association at a gathering in Newark, N.J.
"I don't know
whether it's three years or five years, but in some
time frame in the not so distant future, I suspect that New
Jersey will embrace the moniker of gay marriage or
same-sex marriage," he said.
Corzine asserted
he will sign a bill to allow same-sex marriage if the
legislature sends him one.
"I think we can
move very quickly here, but I think we ought to do it
in a way, by the way, that doesn't cause setbacks everywhere
else in the country," Corzine said, "that doesn't make
it a tool for people who I believe start unjust wars
or try to take away children's health insurance or
aren't committed to enforcing hate-crimes laws and all kinds
of other things."
Meanwhile,
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last week was
sent a marriage equality bill by the California legislature,
spoke over the weekend of the necessity of steering
his Republican Party away from the Right--but
did not mention the marriage bill.
"The California
Republican Party should be a right-of-center party
that occupies the broad middle of California,"
Schwarzenegger told his state party convention in
Indian Wells.
"That is a lush,
green, abandoned political space. It can be ours," he
said.
Over the weekend
Equality California mounted a petition drive urging
Schwarzenegger to sign the marriage bill before the October
14 deadline. People can also e-mail the governor's
office at gov.ca.gov/interact or phone (916)
445-2841. Schwarzenegger vetoed similar marriage
legislation in 2005 and has indicated he will do so
again.
The state GOP's
percentage of voter registration has been shrinking, and
to reverse it the party must tackle issues with broad public
appeal, like climate change and building highways,
railroads, and tunnels, he said. In an apparent
reference to abortion and other social issues that often
divide the party, he said members must be accepting of those
with other views while not abandoning ''who we are.''
He said he wanted
the party to be welcoming to independents--the
fastest-growing voter group in California. He said the party
should open up its February 5 presidential primary to
independent voters.
Schwarzenegger,
who is term-limited, was reelected last year. Corzine, up
for reelection in 2009, told the LGBT journalists that it
would be a "perfectly appropriate" time in two
years to push the marriage issue in his state.
"We of course
will not have anyone dictate when we will push for a
discussion about our families being denied their rights, but
if that's the way he feels, we should sit down and
meet to draw up a timetable," replied Garden State
Equality's Steven Goldstein to Gay City News.
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PlanetOut Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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Associated Press contributed to this story.
