MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) — Although New Jersey's election produced an about-face in the governor's office on the gay marriage issue, both sides of the debate have been readying for a post-election battle in the Legislature.
Gay marriage advocates have regularly launched their campaigns in the lame-duck sessions between Tuesday elections and Jan. 12, when the session ends. But if New Jersey, one of a handful of states that offers civil unions, is going to adopt a law to legalize gay marriage anytime soon, lawmakers need to act quickly.
While Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine has said he would sign a gay marriage bill into law, Republican Chris Christie, who unseated Corzine on Tuesday, has said he would veto it as governor.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, a Camden Democrat who supports gay marriage, said Wednesday he would only bring the issue up for debate if there appeared to be enough votes to pass it.
Len Deo, president of the socially conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council, said it seemed the Assembly would have enough votes to approve a gay marriage bill, but the vote would be close in the Senate.
The push is already on from both sides.
Last month, some 150,000 members of the state's Roman Catholic parishes signed anti-gay marriage petitions, said Patrick Brannigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference. He said the state's five Roman Catholic bishops plan to issue a statement later this week on preserving marriage as it's now defined.
"We are hopeful that others will read it," Brannigan said. "We're hopeful this time that the legislators will pay attention to us."
This week, a group of Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Lakewood issued a statement opposing same-sex unions.
And for months leading up to Tuesday's election, the Marriage Minutemen, a group organized by the Family Policy Council, held meetings in conservative churches, mostly in legislative districts where lawmakers are believed to be on the fence on the issue. The group's lobbying arm, New Jersey Family First, also ran radio ads before the election and may air more soon.
Wednesday, the state's largest gay rights organization, Garden State Equality, launched two television commercials to make their case for allowing gay marriage. They argue that the state's civil unions are not widely understood or recognized.
Chairman Steven Goldstein said Corzine's defeat doesn't hurt Garden State Equality's cause because the election seemed to turn on economic issues, not social policy.
"You get ready for the possibility that he would not win, having absolutely nothing to do with marriage equality," he said.
Christie has said that if a law to allow gay marriage is passed before he takes office, he would support a state constitutional amendment to overturn it.
With the adoption of a constitutional amendment Tuesday in Maine, gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Still, the Catholic Conference's Brannigan isn't optimistic about getting a similar measure on the New Jersey ballot if the Legislature passes a gay marriage law.
To get on the ballot, a proposed amendment would need support from the majority of both legislative chambers in two consecutive sessions — or 60 percent of both houses in one term. Brannigan said that's unlikely with no major changes in the makeup of the Legislature.
In Tuesday's election, only one state Assembly seat moved from Democratic control to Republican.
