Gay marriage dominates Democratic debate

LOS ANGELES -- In one of the liveliest debates of the Democratic primary season, the four remaining presidential candidates skirmished over trade, the death penalty, and lobbyist donations last night, but the culturally charged issue of gay marriage dominated much of the forum.

Senator John F. Kerry, who has been looking ahead to the general election in recent days as the undisputed Democratic front-runner, sounded a note of concern that their 10-minute exchange over gay marriage was playing into President Bush's hands by distracting the candidates from more pressing issues. "This discussion we've just had is exactly where the Republicans want us to spend our time," Kerry said.

The evening was largely a test between Kerry and Senator John Edwards, who is struggling to catch up to the Massachusetts senator before California, New York, Ohio, and seven other states vote Tuesday, and he sought to draw as many distinctions on substance as he could.

The debate at the University of Southern California, which included Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, was a friendly and energetic affair, with the charged atmosphere stemming from the arrangement of the candidates seated side-by-side around a conference table.

The marriage debate, coming a few hours after the actress Rosie O'Donnell wed her longtime partner in San Francisco, inspired a range of passions from the candidates.

Kerry, who opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions, accused Bush of proposing a federal constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage to win Republican votes, and said that Americans should allow the states to decide how to create arrangements for gay couples.

"For 200 years, we have left marriage up to the states," Kerry said. "There is no showing whatsoever today that any state in the country, including my own -- which is now dealing with its own constitutional amendment -- is incapable of dealing with what they would like to do."

Edwards, Democrat of North Carolina, said that Bush's proposal was an affront to American history. "We have amended the United States Constitution to end slavery, to give women the right to vote -- this is clearly nothing but politics," Edwards said.

Sharpton, meanwhile, said the president was exploiting the marriage issue to woo Republicans, and accused him of doing the same in the last election by pitting white voters' interests against those of minorities.

"Bush is trying to go from race baiting with quotas in 2000 to gay baiting in 2004," Sharpton said. "The issue in 2004 is not if gays marry. The issue is not who you go to bed with. The issue is whether either of you have a job when you get up in the morning."

Kerry rushed to embrace Sharpton's point to turn the debate to voters' pocketbook concerns, such as creating more jobs and broadening health care coverage, even as moderator Larry King called gay marriage "the biggest story today."

"The biggest story today, Larry, are 43 million Americans who have no health care," Kerry said, drawing applause.

In a question reminiscent of a famous one that former Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis fielded in 1988 about whether he would favor the death penalty if his wife were murdered, Kerry was asked to square his opposition to the death penalty with a brutal crime, the murder of a 5-year-old child.

"My instinct is to want to strangle that person with my own hands," Kerry said, in an answer that contrasted starkly with the legalistic response that dogged Dukakis. "But we have 111 people who have been now released from death row -- death row, let alone the rest of the prison system -- because of DNA evidence that showed they didn't commit the crime of which they were convicted."

Kerry also won applause during the 90-minute forum by adding that the "civility as a nation" required that "the state should not engage in killing."

Edwards said he was not sure if Kerry would win in the South, given his opposition to the death penalty and pledge to appoint only Supreme Court justices who support abortion rights, and argued that culturally conservative swing states -- like Arkansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Ohio -- were far more favorable ground for a Southerner like himself.

When King pointed out that Kerry had won 18 of the 20 nominating contests so far, including in Tennessee and Virginia, Edwards acknowledged the fact, but added: "I won against the Jesse Helms political machine in North Carolina. I mean, it's a powerful, powerful presence." When the two senators were asked about their regrets on the Iraq war, Edwards refused to give a direct answer and Kerry used the issue to come back at him for a jab Edwards took during another debate, when the North Carolinian suggested that Kerry had given a long-winded answer.

"Let me return a favor from the last debate to John. You asked a yes-or-no answer: Do you regret your vote? The answer is: No, I do not regret my vote," Kerry said. "I regret that we have a president of the United States who misled America and broke every promise he made to the United States Congress."

Edwards said that the only way Democrats would win in November was to have a candidate who came from outside the political system.

"If we're going to change the way Washington operates, my belief is we need somebody who comes from outside that system," said Edwards, a first-term senator.

Kerry hit back, noting that roughly half of the donations to Edwards's campaign have come from fellow trial attorneys.

"I don't ever suggest that he is beholden to them," Kerry said. "I know he's looking for some differences because you need them."

Edwards also tried to draw a distinction with Kerry on trade, ticking off a list of trade deals that Kerry had supported and Edwards opposed.

The litany drew a feigned, hangdog expression on Kerry's face, prompting the audience to laugh and the moderator to say, "He looks shocked."

"Well, I am surprised," Kerry said, "because in his major speech on the economy in Georgetown this past June, John never even mentioned trade. . . . I have said clearly for a number of years now, we have to have labor and environment standards in all of our trade agreements. That is exactly the same position as John Edwards."

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.