Gay marriage won't be on Illinois ballot

Gay marriage won't be on Illinois ballot
By Adam Jadhav
Copyright by The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, Sep. 15 2006

The push for an anti-gay marriage advisory referendum on the statewide ballot
this November is officially over.

Proponents of the Protect Marriage Illinois initiative say they have given up
and won't challenge a federal appeals court ruling last week that effectively
scuttled their movement. The court's decision upheld a dismissal of a lawsuit
this summer that alleged Illinois' election laws were overly burdensome and
unfairly nixed a ballot question asking voters whether Illinois needs a
constitutional amendment to permanently bar same-sex couples from tying the
knot.

"This is the end of the road for now," said Peter LaBarbera, spokesman for the
Illinois Family Institute, a conservative group behind the Protect Marriage
initiative. "We're sad it's not going to be on there, but we've decided not to
challenge the court's decision anymore."

The appellate decision was the third blow to the movement. Previously, the
state Board of Elections threw out the referendum because, among other things,
a sampling showed the petitions would likely have fewer than 260,000 valid
signatures, short of the 283,000 required. The group had turned in some 347,000
initially.

After that, a federal court judge rejected pleas that the state's election laws
were unconstitutional. Attorneys for Protect Marriage Illinois had then taken
their case to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

LaBarbera said "hundreds of thousands of dollars" had been spent in the fight.

The referendum had also faced stiff opposition from gay and civil rights
groups, including Equality Illinois and the American Civil Liberties Union,
which checked the signatures themselves and praised the appeals court's
decision.

"They lost every step of the way," said Rick Garcia, political director for
Equality Illinois, which spent some $150,000 itself fighting the referendum.

Proponents of the referendum had hoped to ride the same wave of public opinion
that led voters in 11 states to pass amendments in November 2004 limiting
marriage to between a man and a woman. Missouri had been somewhat of a national
bellwether in its August 2004 primary when voters overwhelming approved a
similar amendment.

The referendum in Illinois, had it appeared on the ballot, would have been only
an advisory vote intended to spur legislators to act.

It had largely been a push by the conservative activists in Illinois politics,
receiving heavy support - including some $400,000 - from Jack Roeser, who heads
the conservative advocacy group Family Taxpayers Network. Roeser and other
ardent conservatives have been critical of mainstream Republicans for not
joining the fight.

"The Illinois Republican Party had limited resources," said its executive
director, John Tsarpalas. "We chose to put our money and time into our
candidates' campaigns."

Without the referendum, Republican candidates are likely to see some drop in
support.

"If it had been on the ballot, it would have helped conservatives who are
running, particularly in downstate," said Sam Gove, a political scientist at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "I think the party leadership
probably didn't consider it important. Moderates at the helm would say you're
opening a can of worms."

Gay rights groups had contended that the referendum all along had been an
attempt to give more voice to staunchly conservative activists.

The issue is not likely to go away forever. LaBarbera said the initiative
"mobilized an incredible number of people" and that another push in 2008 is
likely. Garcia promised to "go toe-to-toe with them and fight all the way."