Arizona governor wants early vote on gay marriage ban

[davidinalameda]

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=14727&sd=01/06/05

Rather than wait for the November 2006 election, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano believes voters should decide this year whether there should be a state constitutional ban on gay marriages. Napolitano's idea would require a special election. Two months ago conservative social activists and key state lawmakers said they would pursue a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in Arizona.

Republicans have chastised Napolitano's move as a political ploy to keep a gay marriage referendum off the 2006 ballot because it could bring more conservative voters to the polls. "This is political chicanery. She doesn't want it on the ballot in 2006 because it brings out the wrong people for her," said senate president Ken Bennett, a Republican from Prescott. "It's not so much urgent as it is important. To spend about $3 million in taxpayer money to have a special election when far fewer people will vote is wrong." The secretary of state's office has estimated that a statewide special election this year would cost up to $4 million.