Mass. GOP aiding drive for ban on gay marriage

The state Republican Party, despite its officially neutral stance on gay marriage, has been drafting Republicans to gather signatures for a proposed ban on same-sex marriage and plans to use the petition drive to identify supporters for the 2006 elections.

Signaling a rightward shift under the leadership of Governor Mitt Romney, Republican strategists have sent numerous e-mails since September to party members asking them to help opponents of same-sex marriage collect signatures for the proposed ban. Sponsors of the ban are due to turn over the names to city and town clerks next week.

Romney has repeatedly emphasized his opposition to gay marriage as he prepares for a potential run for president, but the Massachusetts Republican Party platform, drafted in 2002 before same-sex marriage was legalized, does not address the subject. A state committeewoman complained yesterday that members were not consulted on the party's involvement, but the state GOP's executive director emphasized that the party's strategy should not be read as an endorsement of the ban.

''This is an opportunity for members of our party who want to participate to participate," said executive director Matt Wylie. ''We're about good government. We're about getting people involved in the process, and there are members of our community who want to be involved in this."

As gay-marriage opponents headed into the final week of the signature-gathering campaign, Romney on Wednesday briefly joined a conference call to rally volunteers with the group VoteonMarrriage.org.

The organizers of the ballot campaign said yesterday that they have collected more than 100,000 signatures, about 35,000 more than necessary, but hope to get as many as 120,000 because they expect gay-marriage supporters to mount challenges to the signatures.

''We will be helping Vote on Marriage to collect the . . . signatures needed to move the gay marriage ballot initiative forward," said one GOP e-mail dated Oct. 11. ''If you would like to help with this effort, please contact the regional coordinator for your area. Gay marriage is just one issue that we will be using to ID voters for the 2006 election cycle."

Another e-mail, dated Sept. 29 and obtained yesterday by the Globe, said: ''The MassGOP is continuing its effort to collect signatures for the Vote on Marriage ballot initiative this Saturday, Oct. 1st."

''Our goal is to identify thousands of voters statewide on a series of issues and then share that data with our candidates next fall, so they can target these voters with very specific mailings and phone calls about the issues that matter to them most," political director Matt St. Hilaire wrote in the e-mail to fellow Republicans. ''President Bush's campaign employed this strategy in battleground states such as Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania in '04 and was highly successful. Duplicating this effort here in Massachusetts is critical if we are to elect Republican candidates in '06 and beyond."

The Republican Party's involvement in a state petition drive is not new. The state party campaigned heavily for the 2000 tax rollback championed by then-Governor Paul Cellucci, for instance, and worked for a successful 2002 initiative to allow taxpayers to deduct charitable contributions from their state taxes.

But the gay-marriage ban is seen as a highly divisive issue, and one GOP committeewoman complained yesterday that the state GOP leadership should have consulted rank-and-file Republicans about the petition drive.

''A unilateral decision was made," said Nancy Luther, a committeewoman from Topsfield. ''Whether the chairman did it on his own or whether he was encouraged to by the governor, I don't know. I don't think it's right to do that. There should have been a vote of the state committee to participate and use party resources, employees, etc."

Wylie downplayed the party's involvement, which was reported yesterday by Bay Windows, a newspaper covering gay and lesbian issues. Rather than embracing the gay-marriage ban, Wylie said, the party is working for the petition drive to identify voters and their issues of concern.

''We're trying to identify voters and their issues for this election cycle," Wylie said. ''Undeniably, gay marriage is one of those issues for this election cycle. . . . We're spending our time trying to identify where voters stand. . . . Somebody who signs their name to that ballot, we know where they stand on that."

The Democratic State Committee passed a resolution in support of gay marriage last year, but has not been actively involved in fighting the petition drive, said communications director Cyndi Roy.

A campaign spokesman for Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who will run for governor if Romney does not seek reelection, did not return a call seeking her comment yesterday. In September, Healey broke with the governor by endorsing civil unions.

This weekend marks the home stretch for organizers' latest attempt to win passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Organizers expect gay-marriage supporters to mount challenges to the signatures after they are submitted to city and town clerks.

''We're going to be ready," said VoteonMarriage.org campaign manager Robert Willington. ''We're just getting as many as we can."

Willington said the group could not quantify the impact of the Republican Party's involvement in the effort. He also pointed out that a top legislative backer of the ban, Representative Philip Travis, is a Democrat.

The proposed constitutional amendment would require state, local, and county governments to license and recognize only marriages between a man and a woman. Although it would prohibit future same-sex marriages, it would allow those marriages formed since May 2004 to remain.

To be placed on the ballot in 2008, the ban would have to be approved by 25 percent of legislators in a constitutional convention in each of the next two years. The petitions must be turned in to city and town clerks by Nov. 23 and filed with Secretary of State William Galvin by Dec. 7. Challenges from the public must be made by Jan. 6, said a spokesman for the secretary.

On Wednesday, the governor surprised a conference call of about 100 petition drive volunteers by calling in for about four minutes. ''Many of them were very surprised and excited to have the governor on the call," Willington said. ''He just talked about the importance of letting the people voice their opinion at the ballot box and urged them to stay strong and keep collecting them in the final weekend here."

Romney's spokeswoman, Julie Teer, confirmed that the governor participated in the call ''to congratulate the volunteers on the progress they have made and encourage them to keep up the good work."

''The governor has been a supporter of the ballot initiative since the beginning, and remains supportive of their efforts," she said.

Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.