In the Aftermath, Pro-Family Leaders Urge Voters to 'Remember in November'

by Jody Brown
July 15, 2004

(AgapePress) - Pro-family leaders at both the national and state levels are encouraging voters not to forget in November who the incumbent senators were who denied the Federal Marriage Amendment a vote on the Senate floor.

Gary Bauer's organization Campaign for Working Families, along with numerous other pro-family groups, lobbied long and hard to get Senator Wayne Allard's measure to the forefront so the American people could gauge where their senators stood on protecting traditional marriage. That effort -- at least for this Senate session -- came to a screeching halt on Wednesday when supporters of the FMA were unable to gather enough votes to stop debate and force a full vote by the Senate.

Gary Bauer

Bauer, while disappointed at the outcome, has words of high praise for advocates of traditional values who kept the phones "ringing off the hook non-stop" in senatorial offices over the last several days. He is now trumpeting the call for those same pro-family voters across the nation to remember in November those senators -- who he identifies as "so-called 'representatives'" -- who voted against the marriage amendment.

"While I am disappointed by the gutless politicians in Washington, what would truly be devastating is if none of them paid a price for this supreme example of elitist arrogance," Bauer writes in his July 14 "End of Day" report.

The conservative spokesman does not expect that arrogance to be limited to the issue of marriage, predicting that in the future it could also rear its head on legislation dealing with such things as the sanctity of life or tax cuts.

"When elected officials cease to be responsive to the electorate, it is time to find new 'representatives,'" he writes. "When our public servants forget who they work for, it is time for them to find new jobs."

Bauer points out several incumbent senators he expects will have some explaining to do when they are confronted by their constituency this fall about their support for homosexual marriage and for the redefinition of marriage: senators such as Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Patty Murray of Washington, John Breaux of Louisiana, and Bob Graham of Florida.

"It is time to retire these arrogant, self-serving politicians who shamelessly ignored the American people," Bauer says.

Blasting Boxer
Senator Barbara Boxer, another Democrat who voted against the cloture motion that, if passed, would have allowed the full Senate to vote on the FMA, is also up for re-election in November. Like Bauer, a pro-family spokesman in Boxer's home state of California is calling attention to the senator's obvious disregard for the 4.6 million people who voted in a marriage protection initiative (Proposition 22) in March 2000.

Randy Thomasson of Campaign for California Families contends Boxer damaged her chances for re-election for voting against the FMA.

Randy Thomasson

"Barbara Boxer is strangely out of touch with the wide majority of California voters who want marriage to stay for a man and a woman," Thomasson says. [She] has a torrid record of attacking this sacred institution [marriage]."

The CCF executive director points out that in addition to her anti-marriage vote on Wednesday, Senator Boxer was one of 14 senators who voted against the federal DOMA in 1996, which was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. She also opposed California Protection of Marriage Initiative in 1996.

"Boxer may be the senator from San Francisco, but she's not the senator from California," Thomasson adds.