NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, is positioning the November 2012 presidential election not as a referendum on President Obama, but as a referendum on same-sex marriage. Going much further than George W. Bush in 2004 — using the “specter” of same-sex marriage to draw anti-gay voters to the polls — NOM political director Frank Schubert told reporters yesterday, “What we will see is the presidential election being a proxy for the survival of traditional marriage in America.”
Schubert apparently seems to be saying, if President Obama is re-elected, traditional marriage will die.
“Schubert, who was instrumental in directing the 2009 campaign in Maine, joined with [NOM Presient Brian] Brown for a conference call Tuesday with reporters from around the country. The organization has endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Schubert says he believes Romney’s support for traditional marriage mirrors the opinion of most Americans,” a local Maine newspaper, the Morning Sentinel, reported today, adding:
Maine is one of four states where ballot measures are almost certain to greet voters in the fall. Following a 2009 defeat at the polls, gay marriage supporters in Maine launched a citizen initiative last year to ask voters to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
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During a conference call Tuesday, Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, said his organization will “be very focused on Maine,” but he would not speculate how much the group would spend. They spent nearly $2 million during the 2009 campaign to overturn a gay marriage law in Maine, and has teamed up with the Christian Civic League to fight the ballot question this time around.
“We view (Maine) as a key state,” he said. “We’ll see how much money we have to spend. We haven’t determined how much we can devote to each state.”
They also plan to target President Barack Obama in key swing states, such as Ohio and Florida, saying his recent expression of support for gay marriage will make him a one-term president.