Posted on 11/05/2008 4:13:45 PM PST by goldstategop
Florida voters approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage Tuesday, handing a victory to social conservatives who pumped millions into the ballot drive aimed at ensuring the courts cannot legalize same-sex unions in the Sunshine State.
After a fierce battle waged on TV airwaves, Amendment 2 was poised to comfortably clear the 60 percent threshold to become law, according to unofficial election results with most precincts reporting late Tuesday night. It defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Voters "don't want what happened in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut to happen here in Florida," said John Stemberger, who ran the Yes 2 Marriage campaign.
A well-funded opposition to Amendment 2 sought to portray the ban as overreaching, arguing the amendment's broad, vague wording could cast legal doubt on domestic partner benefits for unmarried, heterosexual couples.
"We always knew it was going to be a late call, and very, very close," said Michael Kenny, deputy campaign manager for the SayNo2 effort.
Over all, voters delivered a mixed result on the slate of a half-dozen proposed amendments to the constitution.
Florida's gay marriage amendment drew the most attention, with dueling groups pumping more than $5 million into TV advertising and statewide campaigns. Same-sex marriage has been illegal in Florida since 1997, but supporters argued a constitutional shield was necessary to make sure judges would never overturn the law.
Before Tuesday, 27 states had approved bans on same-sex marriage. Only Arizona in 2006 had rejected it.
Opponents of Amendment 2 had focused resources on South Florida, trying to win over voters to offset culturally conservative North Florida. But that strategy didn't work: South Florida slightly favored Amendment 2, according to election returns.
The Yes 2 Marriage campaign was bankrolled by the religious right, including Florida Family Action, the Florida Catholic Conference and the Florida Baptist Convention. Opponents drew heavily from wealthy individual donors and from a gay-rights group, the Human Rights Campaign.
Tuesday's vote marked the first full round of constitutional amendments that needed a 60 percent supermajority to pass -- a standard Florida voters adopted in 2006
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yeah, see, Florida isn’t all goof ups.
If Florida and California approve homo bans but vote for Obama what does that say about our campaign tactics.
In this case. Keep in mind the Liberal Messiah won Florida.
ACORN and the condo commandos were at work over in the Palm Beach area. No point in making an issue of all the out of state voters, but traffic swelled right before the election. It’s mostly back to normal now.
FL north of Orlando is the same as GA or AL. South of Orlando.....fuggedaboutit. Yankees.
Florida voted for MessiahBama because of the influx of his worshipers from the north. They come in droves here because, ironically, they can’t afford to live in the north.
So what do they do? Vote for lefties down here. So, when Florida becomes a lefty state, they’ll complain they can’t afford to live in Florida either.
There won’t be too many states to go to.
“FL north of Orlando is the same as GA or AL. South of Orlando.....fuggedaboutit. Yankees.”
True, north of Orlando are Republicans. The I-4 corridor is independent territory—and a blend of all spectrums.
The south is split. The wealthier southwest is soft Republican (McCain won that area). The southeast is where you have the freeloaders.
I used to live in Broward County, Fort Lauderdale. No more! Fun to visit only. I’m not living anywhere they have to ration fresh water. In North FL, we have more huge fresh water springs than anywhere on earth. Rivers just come bubbling up out of the ground, fresh cold and clear. I don’t miss South FL. Not a bit. Too crowded, too water short, and too full of ‘rat parasites.
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