Senator's Support for Marriage Amendment Wins Over Family Activist
by Chad Groening
May 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Ohio pro-family activist says a recent move by one of his state's U.S. senators has convinced him to now support the two-term incumbent's re-election.It was November 2, 2004, and Ohio was one of 11 states allowing its citizens to go to the polls and defend traditional marriage by amending the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. By the time the votes were tallied, all of those states had overwhelmingly passed the marriage initiatives. In the Buckeye State, the measure won 62%-38% -- and many pundits credited the marriage amendment there with helping George W. Bush win the state, sending him back to the White House for a second term.
But one pro-family leader says he was not happy that Ohio Senator Mike DeWine chose not to support his state's marriage initiative in 2004. The family advocate also expresses dissatisfaction with the Republican lawmaker for joining others in the GOP last year to preserve the Democrat-led filibuster of judicial nominees.
But Phil Burress, president of the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV) Action PAC, says DeWine has come around on the marriage issue and is a co-sponsor of the Marriage Protection Amendment to be debated in the Senate in early June.
"He's certainly not right on all the issues," acknowledges Burress, "and even though I've had a lot of problems with Mike and his voting record, I will be one of the first ones to put the yard sign in my yard in support of Mike DeWine."
As Burress explains, DeWine received the "wrath" of CCV over several issues, one of them being the senator's opposition to the 2004 marriage amendment. "But what saved him in the primary and made a huge difference in his numbers was the fact that, just a couple weeks ago, Mike came out in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment .... And he has not only has come out for it, but he is also a co-sponsor."
A recent Mason-Dixon Line poll showed DeWine ahead of his opponent, Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown, by 11 points. Burress believes DeWine is a far better alternative than Brown, whom he likens to liberal Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Richard Durbin, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
