Gay marriage is heating up as a political issue in the big presidential caucus state of Iowa. Gay marriage was legalized by the state Supreme Court in 2009, and now Republican Gov.-elect Terry Branstad is attacking Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, for saying that he will not hold a vote to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the state’s electorate.
As the Quad-City Times reports:
“Just because you’re a leader in the Legislature doesn’t mean you’re a dictator where you have the right to make a unilateral decision, I think, on an issue of this importance and magnitude,” Branstad said. “Certainly the senators should be given an opportunity to vote on this.”
Asked about Branstad’s comments during a separate session at the seminar, Gronstal said he has no intention of reversing course.
“Dictators are people who take away other people’s rights,” said Gronstal. “I’m not going down that road.”
Republicans made significant gains in Iowa in the 2010 election, with the former governor Branstad, who retired in 1998, coming back to defeat incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver. In addition, Republicans took control of the Iowa state House of Representatives, though the Dems narrowly held on to the state Senate.
And notably, state voters removed three state Supreme Court justices who had faced up-or-down retention elections, and who were heavily targeted by conservatives for their role in the unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized gay marriage in the state.
