Opponents of gay marriage scored a victory on Nov. 4 as Arizona voters approved a proposal to change the state Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and woman.
Approximately 57 percent of the 1.85 million votes cast in Arizona favored Prop. 102, a referendum referred to the ballot by state lawmakers during the final hours of the 2008 legislative session.
The referendum was supported by the socially conservative Center for Arizona Policy and the Yes for Marriage committee, which collected almost $8 million in large contributions primarily from individuals and the Colorado-based group Focus on the Family.
State law passed in 1996 made it illegal for same-sex couples to marry. But opponents of the idea contended that a constitutional amendment was necessary to prevent the judicial branch from overturning the law, which has happened in California, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
In 2006, the organization spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt on a similar, but more expansive version that also aimed to prohibit state and local governments from giving benefits to same-sex partners and the partners of unmarried couples.
Cathi Herrod, executive director for the Center for Arizona Policy, said the new “different amendment, different language” was simple and well-received by diverse elements of the electorate.
“We let marriage speak for itself, and it did,” she said. “Now marriage is defined in our state Constitution. The people decided the definition. Not the courts and not the Legislature.”
Recent court battles galvanized support for the initiative, but Jason Cianciotto, executive director of the Tucson-based gay and lesbian organization Wingspan, said disproportionate campaign war chests and dishonest campaigning had more of an impact.
“It really was David versus Goliath,” he said. “And in this case Goliath won.”
Opponents of the measure, led by Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-15, and former state lawmaker Steve May, formed Arizona Together Opposed to Prop. 102. The group’s campaign budget amounted to roughly $800,000.
Cianciotto said the measure’s supporters had deceptively whipped “activist judge” paranoia because Arizona courts already had defended the state law, a comment referring to the 2003 Arizona Court of Appeals case Standhardt v. Arizona.
The case was filed by Harold Donald Standhardt and Tod Alan Keltner, who were denied a marriage license by the state. The couple sought to overturn the state law banning gay marriage based on a U.S. Supreme Court case that shot down a Texas anti-sodomy law.
Arizona Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court’s decision, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Cari Gerchick.
Cianciotto said he was pleased to see that several lawmakers he blamed for the referendum, including District 30 lawmakers Sen. Tim Bee and Rep. Marian McClure, R-30, lost their 2008 bids for Congress and the Corporation Commission, respectively.
He said their losses stood as a reminder to elected officials that “targeting” the gay community is no longer a good strategy for garnering political support.
“Anti-gay politicking failed to deliver for Bee and McClure, just as it has elsewhere in the country,” he said.