Poll Results: Save marriage equality in Maine
Dkos released yesterday the first public polling numbers on Ballot Question 1 in Maine, which asks voters if they want to repeal the marriage equality law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
We are up by the narrowest of margins: 46 YES, 48 NO. That is essentially were we were at this point in the Prop 8 campaign, prior to the Yes side's devastating ad campaign.
The other side is excited about these results. From a Yes on 1 press release:
We are encouraged by the results of a poll released today by Daily Kos which shows that Mainers support protecting marriage between a man and a woman over legalizing homosexual marriage by a 48-to-46 margin.
Our lead is particularly significant given that the poll was conducted after our opponents had the television airwaves to themselves for two-and-a-half weeks and our ad had aired for just two days. It is clear that their message of fairness and equality do not compel voters to support homosexual marriage, particularly against the backdrop of the serious, real consequences to individuals, small businesses and religious organizations that we raise.
They are right. We are yet to see the effects of their messaging on the polling and that makes me really freaking nervous. We have never won a marriage fight at the ballot box. Losing in Maine would really set back the marriage equality movement, particularly after all of the momentum post-Prop 8.
But we all have the power influence the outcome of the race.
Maine is small. (For us out in California, it is really freaking small.) They are only expecting about 500k voters and have a budget of $3 million. They are as they like to say, "a cheap date".
That means we, the netroots can have a huge impact on this race.
I'm proud to announce that Blue America's 2010 ActBlue page is now live and No on 1 Maine is the first campaign to be list. They need your help to make sure unlike the Prop 8 campaign can stay up strongly on the air and continue to build their robust field program.
Give whatever you can. Early money is much more useful than late money, especially when so much of the vote will come in through the mail.
If you have some airline miles to spare, you can donate them here to fund volunteers traveling to Maine for a week, as part of their volunteer vacation program.
I'm headed to Maine myself in a week, on loan from the Courage Campaign. I can't wait to work beside the wonderful volunteers featured in this video:
and theyre doing such a bang up job of it, with high divorce rates, infidelity rampant, single parent households, teens getting knocked up (like that Alaska lady's daughter). why dont they try cleaning their own house first and stop being 'afraid' of gays taking over the marriage neighborhood. if theyre 'protecting' marriage theyre doing a lousy job of it.
We are yet to see the effects of their messaging
FYI, It's "we HAVE yet to see".
No on 1 Maine is the first campaign to be list.
Is this the first campaign ON the list, or the first campaign TO BE LISTED?
They need your help to make sure unlike the Prop 8 campaign can stay up strongly on the air and continue to build their robust field program.
This barely makes sense at all. Are you saying they need our help so that this initiative, unlike Prop 8, can be defeated? What is the "campaign" that's mentioned in this sentence? What is it that you want to "stay on the air"?
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
...and what about the type font?
Sans-serif is so pedestrian that the message becomes unreadable!
Q: So, what do you call your act?
A:
The AristocratsExcelsior!Because writing clear sentences is SO UNIMPORTANT when you're trying to get things across to the public, isn't it?
By the way, just what do you have to do with this, anyway? I was pointing out these things to the person who WROTE THE POST. Is that you?
And that cute little (completely meaningless) crack about my handle? What exactly is it supposed to mean? Because as far as I can see, it has nothing to do with either my comment or my screen name or...anything, really. So you're saying what, exactly?
Talk about a troll!
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
Watch the movie "The Aristocrats.
Read the book "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves".
Grammar, punctuation and spelling trollage usually does not appear until much further down a thread -- after discussion of content draws to a stalemate and the small minds start jumping their respective sharks.
It always irks me to no end when I see them insist they're 'protecting' marriage. It's not about protecting anything. It's about them trying to strip away the basic rights from fellow Americans due to their own hatred and bigotry.
Still, they can't stop forward progress forever. At the most, they'll delay it, as they did in California, but as much as a delay hurts, eventually we'll win.
yet we were the first ones to embrace marriage equality-
All the predictions of the radical right that legal gay marriage would destroy marriage everywhere in Massachusetts never came to pass....
Notice how many of the straight opponents of gay marriage are often on their second or third marriages?
Can we ask them to support marriage like it was 270 years ago in Britain, since they are soo conservative and traditional.
No priests necessary for a wedding, mind your own business and get married.
Got some idiots up here in Norway too, crying about the recent marriage law, claiming it invalidates every single marriage made before the law came into effect.
Considering Martin Luther (yes, the "inventor" of protestantism) supported polygamy, how does the evangelical christians make the "one man, one woman" claim anyway.
in that since it happened 'way back there', it's not important.
The righties are not exactly keen on reading any book other than their Bible...
What am I missing? I can't make any sense of all this.
"No" on repealing the "Marriage equality Act" leads by 2%, but the "Yes on 1" group is saying the poll results "support protecting marriage between a man and a woman over legalizing homosexual marriage by a 48-to-46 margin."
What am I missing? Are the numbers reversed?
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
It is, after all, a civil rights issue.
"Marriage" = Gay Marriage.
"Vaginal Creampie Marriage" = Traditional Marriage.
Please use these new and improved terms for all future poatings on this subject.
..."poatings".
Heh heh.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Very popular in Quebec, "poatings" is french fries with cheese curds and gravy.
Delicious!
Try some when you are oot and aboot.
My arteries are closing just thinking about, I mean, aboot it.
...the next time I make a pilgrimage to the Robin MacNeil Shrine and Wax Museum in Halifax, eh?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Are going on all over America. We have one in Washington State, It's called Referendum 71 and a group of concerned citizens is working it's way through the court system to publish the names of the signers of the PUBLIC DOCUMENT PETITION that put it on the ballot. Maybe there are people on the list who didn't sign it? Maybe there are fake names? Maybe there are people who don't want others to know they're homophobic.
Whatever their reason, they found a judge who is homophobic to rule in the petitioner's favor and now it's before the Western District for Appeal. Here are a couple of links to the stories. Why should we support folks in Maine when we have the SAME problem in WA and need to support OUR OWN STATE RIGHTS? And WHAT is wrong with the people of Maine that they wouldn't do the same as we have here? Publish the signatures of the people who want the referendum. The public has a right to see that the signers are from INSIDE their own state don't they?
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2009/09/01/breaki...
http://whosigned.org/
I'm a Mainer (born and raised here), and I've been seeing the anti-gay marriage commercials on TV; they come on during Jeopardy every night like clockwork, it seems. The commercial I keep seeing is pretty ridiculous, especially in comparison to the commercials I've seen encouraging people to vote "No." Where the "No" commercials show normal, happy families explaining their position, the "Yes" commercial is a blatant scaremongering piece, replete with scary music and a creepy "academic" telling everyone that "legal experts" say they could teach "homosexual marriage" in schools. Run for your lives! Really, if that's the best they've got, I don't see them winning.
That said, the Catholic churches in Maine are apparently holding a special collection tomorrow during services specifically to raise money to fight gay marriage (I guess they're afraid of losing their last source of priests?), so there are people out there doing their best to get this put down. Most of the people I know, even those who are politically conservative, are in favor of allowing gay marriage and really can't see what the big deal is. I'm sort of surprised that the numbers are running as close as they are, because generally, Maine is a pretty "live and let live" kind of state where people are more concerned about the lumber industry than whether Mary and Susan are living together. But I live in the southern part of the state, where people tend to be more progressive; head up north and it's a whole different ball of wax.
I really hope "No" comes out on top of this; I was proud to hear that we had passed marriage equality when it first hit the news, and I'd love to see it stick. There are the obvious civil rights considerations, but economically, I think it could be good for the state, as well. And really, it's just beyond time to deal with this and do the right thing- not just in Maine, but nationwide. I'm sick of these ultra-right, neoconservative, fundamentalist Christians trying to dictate everything from marriage laws to womens' rights while their own marriages are shambles, their kids are having children out of wedlock and they've spent the last eight years running this country into the ground. Really, screw them.
How many of these "save marriage" hypocrites are divorced.
Would it not make more sense to vote "No" if you disagree with changing an existing statute? The question should be, "Do you want to change the existing statute?" Yes or No?
Who gets to determine the framing of the ballot initiative? I mean that literally. Who ultimately determines the phrasing of the issue as it appears on the ballot?
And yes, I am too lazy to resort to the google.
... Deuteronomy 22
“If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her, and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’ Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die."
And for all the republican adulterers this: "22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel."
Let's get our pile of stones ready.
If you really want to influence the vote, all those supporting marriage equality should pledge to spend $50 on Maine products over the next year if Maine votes No on Prop 1. If just 3% of the population pledges, that is 9 million people. That translates to $450 million. For a small state like Maine, that is a lot of lobsters, cheesy Moose hats, and beer.
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