Conn. ballot masks a battle
Convention vote could lead to ban on gay marriage
HARTFORD - The jubilation that gay couples felt just three weeks ago when Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage has been replaced by Election Day jitters.
Their worries are focused on a ballot question asking voters if they want to authorize Connecticut's first convention in more than 40 years to revise the state constitution.
Opponents of same-sex marriage, including the state's Catholic bishops, are pushing hard for a convention because they believe it could lead to a direct ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage in Connecticut.
A new poll by the University of Connecticut and the Hartford Courant found that 50 percent of voters surveyed supported the convention and 39 percent opposed it. But the same poll indicated 55 percent opposed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
One of the plaintiffs in the case, Jeffrey Busch of Wilton, said the constitutional convention question "has cast a pall" over his family. Busch and his longtime partner, Stephen Davis, have been planning to get married since the state's high court handed down its decision on Oct. 10.
"We were just walking on air," Busch said. But he said now, when they see signs at their local Catholic church urging people to vote for the convention, "it feels threatening."
"It's absolutely been an emotional roller coaster," said Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes A Family, a group that has been battling for approval of same-sex marriage in Connecticut for years.
"There was joy and excitement on decision day," Stanback said, "but we couldn't fully celebrate. We knew we needed to really dig in to defeat this."
Peter Wolfgang, president of the Family Institute of Connecticut, a conservative group opposed to same-sex marriage, said he was encouraged by the poll results indicating that half of voters support a convention.
"It's what we were hoping for," he said. "But there's no way to know for sure until Election Day."
Wolfgang said his organization had been pushing all year to have the same-sex marriage decision released before the election. He said the ruling finally got voters thinking about same-sex marriage, the constitutional convention, and direct initiative issues.
The debate over the convention question has ignited an intense lobbying war.
The "Vote No: Protect Our Constitution" group has raised nearly $866,000 and used it for television and radio ads urging voters to block a convention. Most of that money has come from state employee and teachers' unions fearful that allowing voters to petition to put questions on the ballot could lead to dramatic tax cuts and public employee layoffs.
Other members of the coalition include mostly liberal organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL Pro-Choice CT, and Connecticut Citizen Action Group. Nearly all of the state's top Democratic officials also oppose a convention.
"We believe it would be an occasion for mischief-making by special interest groups," said Martin M. Looney, a New Haven Democrat and the state Senate majority leader.
A coalition of pro-convention groups calling itself the Constitutional Convention Campaign has raised only about $15,000. "Our operation is pretty much lawn signs," Wolfgang said.
He said the disparity in the two groups' funding undermines notions that well-heeled conservatives would try to buy influence at a convention.
The state's Catholic bishops and their lobbying arm, the Connecticut Catholic Conference, have been broadcasting radio editorials and TV ads in support of a convention.
"The Catholic Church has come out in favor of a 'yes' vote in a big way," Wolfgang said. "It is a big help."
A key reason 50 percent of surveyed Connecticut voters said they would support a convention is their unhappiness with the state legislature, the poll said.
Of those surveyed, 65 percent said they want a direct ballot initiative system in Connecticut, something already legal in 31 other states, including Massachusetts.
Arthur Paulson, a political science professor at Southern Connecticut State University, said excitement about the presidential race could have an impact on the convention question.
All major polls indicate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has a strong lead in Connecticut and many politicians are predicting higher-than-usual voter turnout.
Few of those surveyed in the UConn-Courant poll apparently realized that state lawmakers would be the ones to decide who would be named as delegates to a convention.
Busch said he has been surprised by "how little discussion there has been over this," and is worried that people won't connect the idea of a convention with the campaign against same-sex marriage.
The issue is on the ballot this year because of a provision adopted by the last constitutional convention in 1965. Those delegates decided voters should be asked every 20 years whether a convention is needed. Voters rejected it in 1985.
Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in yesterday's Metro section about an effort to give Connecticut voters the right to petition to have questions on the ballot misstated how many states give voters this right. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 24 states have either direct or indirect ballot initiatives. Massachusetts has an indirect process. 