Gay MArriage

To view a larger version of this cartoon, click here.

SAN FRANCISCO -- After delivering a textbook example of how to nail a set of talking points during a high-profile Friday press conference on Proposition 1A -- the high speed rail initiative -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom used a PolitickerCA.com question to articulate why principles mean more to him than political gain.

In a wide ranging answer to a question about his thoughts on the status of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would ban gay marriage in California, an unprompted Newsom explained why the fate of the measure and of gay and all civil rights means so much to him.

In addition to some high profile San Diego businesses, proponents of the Yes on 8 campaign also sent threatening letters to at least two major Bay Area-based corporations, officials said.

In what critics labeled as an attempt at extortion, leaders from ProtectMarriage.com/Yes on 8 threatened that business leaders and corporations who contributed to Equality California, the main nonprofit heading up the No on 8 campaign, give them the same funding or risk being publicly exposed for not supporting traditional marriage.

Bay Area-based Levi Strauss and Pacific Gas & Electric were among the Northern California companies who received the certified letters this week, according to the Associated Press.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Prop. 8, a ballot measure that if approved would ban gay marriage in California, is losing among likely voters, 52 percent to 44 percent, a statewide poll released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California shows.

The gap between likely voters in favor and opposed to Prop. 8 (44 percent ‘yes,' to 52 percent ‘no') has narrowed since September when survey results showed that 41 percent of likely voters were indicating support for the controversial measure while 55 percent said they vote against it.

Here are more detailed results from the PPIC poll:

Comedienne Ell DeGeneres released a video Tuesday pleading with people to vote to defeat Prop. 8, the Nov. 4 ballot initiative that if passed would eliminate gay marriage in California.

"Ellen DeGeneres is someone Californians know and respect," said Patrick Guerriero, No on 8 campaign director. "Her voice has a tremendous ability to elevate this conversation above the scare tactics and help people understand what's at stake for the people they know and care about."

An internal campaign poll suggests that while she certainly has an uphill battle, Democratic challenger Sara Orozco could upset state Sen. Scott Brown if several things break her way.

Sara Orozco (D-Needham)Orozco's poll, made available to PolitickerMA.com Wednesday, shows that Orozco, of Needham, significantly trailing the Brown by 23 percent. However, when it looks deeper into the poll, the Orozco campaign sees a path to victory.

In the survey, Brown, of Wrentham, trounced Orozco in name recognition, 81.5 percent to 18.5 percent. Brown also had a strong favorability rating, 51.1 percent, compared to low unfavorability rating, 15.7 percent. More, nearly six in 10 respondents approved of Brown's job performance. Orozco's name recognition was only 18.5 percent with a favorability and unfavorability comparison of 6.7 to 4.7 percent. And, if the election were held at the time the poll was taken, Brown would have defeated Orozco 52.9 percent to 29.5 percent.

However, 45.3 percent of respondents said Brown deserves re-election while 22.5 percent opted for "someone else" and 32.3 percent were undecided, a statistic the Orozco camp believes leaves the door open to a challenger. Respondents also favored Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain by nearly 20 points, 50.6 percent to 30.2 percent. Given the high turnout expected this year, the Orozco campaign expects many of those voters to break for Orozco.

On the heels of a poll commissioned by a LGBT rights organization that said the majority of New Jersey voters favor allowing gay marriage, Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Washington Township) pushed for his own legislation that would call for an amendment to the state constitution that would allow New Jerseyans to vote on the issue.

“The people of New Jersey should have the final say on this fundamental issue and it’s time to allow their voices to be heard so that we can put this diversion behind us and move forward on real issues that are affecting our residents,” said Doherty in a press release.

Meanwhile, Steven Goldstein – chair of Garden State Equality, which paid for the Zogby poll – took the opportunity to invite Doherty to his own wedding next year.

“He’s entitled to his view and I look forward to welcoming him to my wedding in New Jersey in 2009,” said Goldstein. “Honestly, if he’d like to be in the wedding party, he’s more than welcome. I’ll personally buy him any tuxedo of his choosing.”

After a judge rejected twice their arguments that Attorney General Jerry Brown's ballot title wording for Prop. 8 was biased, the committee promoting the measure said Monday it would seek no further legal action in the matter.

Prop. 8, if approved by the voters in November would amend the California Constitution to state that marriage was only between a man and a woman.

Supporters of the initiative argued that the attorney general's wording that the measure, that "...(Prop. 8) would "eliminates (the) right of same-sex couples to marry.

"

With ballots just days away from printing, proponents and opponents of the ballot initiative that would ban gay marriage in the California constitution wrangled over the language that will go before voters Nov. 4.

At a hearing Thursday afternoon before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley, the attorney for the pro-Proposition 8 side said language on the current ballot constitutes a willful attempt to mislead voters into opposing the measure.

Andrew Pugno said that the measure's ballot and summary said the measure would eliminate same-sex marriage. That equated to loaded language, he said.

Proponents of Proposition 8 said they planned to file suit this afternoon against California Attorney General Jerry Brown over the language used to describe the anti-gay marriage ballot measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Yes on 8 spokesperson Jennifer Kerns said the group specifically objected to how that office's title for the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot said it would "eliminate" a right to be married for some California residents, specifically homosexuals.