Victory for Same-Sex Marriage in Massachusetts

Fri Jun 15 09:54:09 PDT 2007

Paul -- while I was not an MA voter, just a CA voter who happened to be
camped out in MA during the campaign, I think it is fair to say that gay
marriage was not the defining issue of the MA gubernatorial race.  It
came up, but was pretty much downplayed.  Patrick ran what seemed to be
an astonishingly well organized grassroots campaign, resulting in
victories across the state in the Dem. primary in a multi-candidate
field.  So he was a very strong candidate coming into the general
election.  Kerry Healy, the Republican, never overcame her negative
taint from being part of an unpopular Romney administration.  She ran a
harsh, negative campaign, and folks reacted against it.  So it was a
very interesting election, but it would be wrong to recast it as a
referendum on gay marriage.

Mary

Mary L. Dudziak
Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and
Political Science
University of Southern California Law School
On leave in Sharon, Massachusetts (2006-07)
Home page:  mdudziak.com

-----Original Message-----
From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Paul Finkelman
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 12:28 PM
To: MGRABER at gvpt.umd.edu; conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: Victory for Same-Sex Marriage in Massachusetts

I did not follow the Mass. governor's race closely but I am willing to
bet that the Republican Candidate was opposed to same sex marriage and
the Gov. Patrick was not.  Certainly the same was true in Ohio in 2004
as thousands of unemployed former factory workers voted for Republicans
(especially George W. Bush) who had no plans to bring jobs to them, but
did promise to try to prevent gay men from getting married and having
abortions.  Professor Dougherty does not seem to mind republican form of
govenment and the electoral college when the people he likes win and do
what he wants, but when his folks lose he is suddenly upset with the
system.

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386
pfink at albanylaw.edu
>>> "Mark Graber" <MGRABER at gvpt.umd.edu> 06/15/07 11:22 AM >>>
May I suggest a friendly amendment to the below.  My sense of Political
Science 101 (which I have actually taught) is that the people rarely
speak "loud and clear" in a positive sense.  That is to say determining
the actual mandate of an election is difficult, if not impossible.  For
this reason, I would phrase Paul's comment in the negative.  The vast
majority of representatives believe they are unlikely to be voted out of
office for not overturning Goodrich.  Democracy, in this sense, is not
real good at providing clear instructions to representatives as to what
they must do, but is not bad about providing instructions to
representatives about what the people do not want them to do.

Mark A. Graber

>>> "Paul Finkelman" <pfink at albanylaw.edu> 06/15/07 9:36 AM >>>
Richard, as far as I can tell the people of Mass. have a right to vote
to elect their state legislature; that is what a republican form of
government is all about.  You elect a legislture, the legislature passes
laws; the governor signs them; they become laws. It is political science
101!  Since you are in a poltiical science department, I am sure this
makes sense to you.  If you don't like it, you work hard to elect a
different legislature and a different governor. Then you pass a new law.
That, I assume, is Political Science 201.

The people of Massachusetts spoke loud and clear when they elected the
current legislaure and the current governor. 

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386
pfink at albanylaw.edu 
>>> "Richard Dougherty" <doughr at udallas.edu> 6/15/2007 12:36 AM >>>

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