Conservative Principles Now

Last week the District of Columbia’s Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) rejected, for the third time, a request by five D.C. citizens to put the issue of same-sex marriage to a popular vote.

If the Board’s decision is upheld by the D.C. Superior Court and appeals fail, only the U.S. Congress will be able to ensure that a vote occurs before the same-sex marriage law approved by the D.C. Council takes effect early next month. Advocates of the traditional definition of marriage, represented by the public interest law firm Alliance Defense Fund, immediately filed an appeal of the BOEE ruling last Friday, and they are seeking an expedited ruling on the public’s right to vote under the D.C. Charter.

Now it appears that a solid majority of D.C. citizens, including a sizable number of supporters of same-sex marriage, favor allowing the people of the District of vote on the issue. In a poll conducted by The Washington Post published on Sunday, 59% of D.C. adults said that they favor allowing the people of the city to vote on the issue. This despite the fact that, according to the poll, 56% of D.C. residents favor same-sex marriage and only 35% are opposed. There is also a racial split among D.C. adults. Eighty-three percent of D.C.’s white residents favor same-sex marriage, while only 37% of black D.C. residents do. The poll had a sample size of 1,135 and a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.

Adding to the pressure for a vote is new legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and the U.S. Senate by Robert Bennett (R-UT), which would disallow implementation of the same-sex marriage law until the people of D.C. have had a change to vote on the measure. Thirty-one other U.S. jurisdictions have exercised that option and rejected same-sex marriage at the ballot box. Residents of the nation’s capital should enjoy that same option, regardless of the outcome on Election Day.

Lock the doors. Gerry McCann's in town. That's the message of the John Parnofiello camp, still in campaign mode in Rutherford a month and a half from election day, bearing down on a Jan. 7th court date and - they believe - handed a gift in the form of the perpetually toxic McCann.  The former Jersey City mayor said all he wanted to do was help an old pal grind through the after shock of his election and do some intelligence gathering for him that might reverse the outcome. The politician who once declared, "I'm a simple man: You hit me, I hit you," didn't figure on a big flare-up when he volunteered to check on the absentee ballot signatures of John Parnofiello and Parnofiello's ticket mates. But now that he's in a battle with the other side charging him with completely inappropriate tactics targeting seniors, he doesn't mind fighting back. "Their council president committed a crime, voting for her mother for the last four years," McCann said of Councilwoman Maura Keyes, an ally of the other team's. "I was going to give the woman a pass, but now they're trying to make it seem as though I'm the problem," fumed the former mayor. "This is a crime. This is exactly what happened when they indicted an Hispanic American freeholder in Essex County. How do you indict him, and not indict this? Thank Kleinman. Because of Kleinman, now all they got me is mad."