Gregg cites states' rights in voting against amendment

WASHINGTON -- Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who two years ago supported a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, unexpectedly voted against the measure yesterday, as all five Republican senators from New England states joined their Democratic colleagues from the region in opposing the amendment.

The five New England Republicans -- Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and Gregg and his New Hampshire colleague, John E. Sununu -- were among only seven Republicans nationally to vote against the amendment, which failed to gain passage in the Senate. Lawmakers voted 49 to 48 in favor, far short of the 60 votes needed to continue consideration of the bill.

Gregg's shift surprised some political observers, who considered him the most conservative of all New England senators and the one most closely associated with President Bush, the leading supporter of the amendment.

Gregg, who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, helped Bush prepare for his presidential debates in 2000 and 2004, portraying both the former vice president Al Gore and Senator John F. Kerry in the president's rehearsals.

``Gregg tends to be the loyalist among the two [New Hampshire] senators," said Melvin J. Dubnick , a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. ``He regards himself as a real member of the Bush team."

Gregg explained his vote in terms of states' rights, saying in a statement that a constitutional amendment would ``take this issue not only away from a few activist judges, but also out of the hands of 50 states' legislators, governors, and electorates."

Explaining his switch from 2004, Gregg wrote that after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision that year legalizing same-sex marriages, ``there was genuine cause for concern" that other states would be forced to follow suit.

``The past two years have demonstrated that New Hampshire, like the 44 other states that prohibit same-sex marriage, is best equipped to protect traditional marriage from legal actions elsewhere," Gregg wrote.

Eighteen states -- none in New England -- currently have state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages. Though New Hampshire does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions, even if they were performed out of state, the New Hampshire Legislature in March soundly defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have defined marriage as a heterosexual union.

New England is widely regarded as the most liberal region of the country, with New Hampshire as a lone conservative outpost. But New Hampshire has shown a resistance to most of the conservative social agenda. And New Hampshire surprised many Republicans across the country by narrowly opting for Kerry over Bush in 2004.

Though Gregg said ``marriage should be between a man and a woman," he reached back to the Founding Fathers to explain his opposition to the federal amendment, writing that the nation's founders ``strongly believed that issues which intimately involve people's lives should be left to the states."

Snowe released a statement yesterday echoing Gregg's focus on states' rights.

Of the New England Senate delegation, only Snowe and Chafee face reelection in November. Snowe's seat is considered secure, but Chafee, one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate, faces stiff opposition from both sides of the aisle.

But even Chafee's conservative opponent, Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey , declined to make an issue of the constitutional amendment.

A spokeswoman for Laffey said he, too, believes the issue of gay marriage should be left to the states.