Reilly presses for vote on gay marriage ban
Only Democrat to do so at debate
NEWTON -- Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly urged the Legislature yesterday to vote on a proposed ban of same-sex marriage next month, using a debate among Democratic candidates for governor to say that lawmakers should not try to kill the measure through procedural maneuvers.
Reilly, who initially opposed same-sex marriage but came to support it, was the only Democrat yesterday to say the scheduled vote should take place. Deval L. Patrick said he would accept a tactic that derailed the measure, and Christopher F. Gabrieli refused to say either way.
Reilly said that although he's against the constitutional amendment, which seeks to outlaw same-sex marriage in 2008, he believes that the Legislature should take it up.
``I would vote against it if I was a legislator," Reilly said. ``But they should vote on this."
Reilly's remarks occurred during an hourlong debate that in its friendliness and civility contrasted with recent faceoffs between the candidates, including last week's housing forum when Reilly mocked Patrick's vacation mansion in the Berkshires as ``Taj Deval." The candidates laid out plans for improvements to education and healthcare and often agreed with one another. The taped debate, the second in a series of forums sponsored by the Globe, New England Cable News, WBUR, and the public policy think tank MassInc, was broadcast last night.
Lawmakers are scheduled to meet July 12 to consider the amendment to ban same-sex marriage, which needs the support of 50 lawmakers this legislative session and next to advance. Supporters of gay marriage have not ruled out using procedural tactics to kill the measure. On Wednesday, Governor Mitt Romney and Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston exhorted the Legislature to have an up-or-down vote on the amendment.
Patrick said during the debate that he wished there weren't going to be a vote on same-sex marriage and likened the issue to a fight 40 years ago over interracial marriage. The US Supreme Court stepped in and struck down prohibitions in many states against blacks and whites marrying, he said, even though Congress and the public probably would not have done the same.
``There was a constitutional decision made," Patrick said of the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. ``I think it was the right decision. Let's move on."
Gabrieli, also a supporter of gay marriage, was pressed for his opinion, but would say only that he would work to defeat the proposed ban if elected governor.
The debate at NECN's studios mainly focused on education and healthcare, and the three candidates spent the first half-hour talking about issues that included charter schools, the state's new healthcare bill that aims to provide nearly universal coverage, and funding the state's public higher education system.
One discussion concerned the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, the standardized test that all public high school students in Massachusetts must pass to graduate.
Patrick and Reilly said they wanted to see the minimum passing grade raised above its current level, 220 on the MCAS scale, while Gabrieli said that now wasn't the right moment.
``I think it's time to think about raising the standards, if you will, the difficulty of the MCAS," Patrick said, though he cautioned against seeing the MCAS as a ``silver bullet" and reiterated that schools ought to cater to the ``whole child."
Reilly said the state should seek to raise the minimum passing grade by 20 points to 240, which a coalition of business leaders and educators has pushed. But Reilly said the state must also restore remediation programs that have been cut.
Gabrieli talked about how merely passing the MCAS is not enough in today's global economy and said the state needs to help more students reach higher achievement levels.
But Gabrieli said it would be a mistake to raise the minimum passing grade now, because there are still many students struggling to get over that hump.
``There are too many kids who are just barely passing," he said.
NECN anchor R.D. Sahl opened the second half of the debate by trying to get the three Democrats, who agreed with one another frequently about healthcare and the need to invest in education, to take more pointed positions and say why their rivals wouldn't make good governors. Each candidate talked instead about himself and why he believed his experience would make him the best leader.
As they have on other occasions, the three candidates did clash over whether to roll back the income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5 percent. Reilly wants to do it immediately; Patrick opposes it; and Gabrieli favors the rollback, but wants a more gradual approach. Gabrieli said it would be fiscally irresponsible to roll the rate back immediately, as Reilly now advocates. (Reilly was against the rollback last year because, at the time, he didn't think Massachusetts could afford it.)
``There is a very clear way to do it," Gabrieli said, though he has yet to detail what that way is, other than to say it should be based on certain economic triggers.
Later in the day, all six candidates for governor met for a forum at the Roxbury Community College's media arts center. The candidates were asked three questions, which they had received ahead of time, that addressed their strategies for workforce development and state budget proposals for a trust fund for job training and adult basic education.
All of the candidates, including Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, said that they disagreed with Romney's decision to veto legislation that would match the $21 million workforce training fund that employers support through unemployment taxes. The forum's moderator asked Healey whether she asked Romney not to veto the legislation or whether she had a conversation with him about it.
``I will never characterize private discussions I have had with the Governor," Healey said.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 