09.11.07
Corzine vows to sign marriage bill but said it would not make his agenda in 2008
New Jersey’s governor last weekend vowed to sign a marriage equality bill but said he would not seek one in an election year, while California’s governor did get such a bill but kept quiet about it as he exhorted fellow Republicans toward centrism.
New Jersey governor Jon Corzine on Sunday called same-sex marriage in his state inevitable but said it “won’t be on my agenda” until after the 2008 presidential election for fear it would be used as a wedge issue by the right wing, New York’s Gay City News reported.
“I don’t think I’d like to see this debated in a presidential election year,” the paper quoted Corzine, a Democrat, as telling members of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association at a gathering in Newark, N.J.
“I don’t know whether it’s three years or five years, but in some time frame in the not so distant future, I suspect that New Jersey will embrace the moniker of gay marriage or same-sex marriage,” he said.
Corzine asserted he will sign a bill to allow same-sex marriage if the legislature sends him one.