Rebecca Kleefisch, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, is now apologizing for remarks she made on Christian radio, in which she opposed domestic partner benefits for gay state employees by saying gay marriage could lead to a person marrying inanimate objects and dogs.
“We can’t at this point afford to just be handing out money to anyone,” Kleefisch had said, opposing the domestic partner benefits. “This is a slippery slope in addition to that — at what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? This is ridiculous.”
She has now apologized. “My comments were meant to relay my concern with redefining marriage,” Kleefisch said in the statement reported by the Associated Press. “I never intended to sound insensitive, and have the utmost respect for all people. I apologize for my poor choice of words.”
Candidates for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin run together as a ticket with the nominee for governor in the general election, after having first run separate campaigns in their party primaries. The TPM Poll Average for the gubernatorial race has the Republican ticket of Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch leading with 50.6%, and the Democratic ticket of Tom Barrett and Tom Nelson at 43.7%.
