Iowa House Democrats: Willfully Deaf!
By Bryan English
2/9/10 Pleasant Hill, IA –
House Speaker Pat Murphy today presided over a vote that confirmed for all of Iowa that he and his caucus ought to shut off the lights in the State House and go home to look for legitimate work. With the exception of Rep. Deloris Mertz, the Democratic caucus today turned their back on the Constitution, their assigned legislative duty, and the people of Iowa by refusing to take action on the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Reacting to the vote, IFPC Action spokesman Bryan English said, “If Speaker Murphy intends to allow courts to make law in Iowa, he ought to stop stealing his paycheck from the taxpayers and go look for other work.”
House Republicans, on the other hand, responded to the calls and e-mails from their constituents and made certain that every Member of the House went on record with their support for or opposition to the Iowa Marriage Amendment. The lone exception was Rep. Mark Kuhn who had been excused from today’s vote to attend to a personal matter.
After the vote, English said, “Real marriage enjoys broad bi-partisan support among Iowa citizens, but the Iowa Democrat Party has attempted to make it a partisan issue. Almost to a person, they all say that they support real marriage when they are talking to their constituents, but today those constituents got a good look at who really represents them.”
He continued, “Democrat Members will now go home and try to say that procedural votes don’t matter, but nobody is buying that story any more. Members of the House have had an opportunity to reassert their proper role as lawmakers, and to reaffirm the only definition of marriage, both last session and again this morning. On both occasions, they failed to do the right thing.”
Shortly after last spring’s Supreme Court Opinion, a crowd of over 500 gathered at the Capitol to lobby the legislature to bring the Iowa Marriage Amendment to the people for a vote. A crowd estimated at 1000 gathered at the Capitol on January 12th of this year to tell their Lawmakers to “Let Us Vote” on the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Lawmakers have been inundated with calls, e-mails, letters, and personal visits from constituents asking them to let us vote. The communications were so one sided, that Speaker Murphy recently sent an e-mail to a special interest group that promotes sexual deviance asking for people to come and help offset the message of marriage supporters.
English said, “Speaker Murphy and his caucus can only ignore the people of Iowa for so long. We will remember in November.” He concluded by saying, “We look forward to working with the new Speaker in the next session to pass the Iowa Marriage Amendment.”
The Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION has long been a proponent of pro-family public policy and an active supporter of preserving the institution of marriage through passage of the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Their LUV Iowa effort, which stands for “Let Us Vote,” has been organizing affiliate groups in cities all across the state since last April. More information about the LUV Iowa movement is available at www.LUVIowa.com.
CONTACT:
Bryan M. English
Iowa Family Policy Center / Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION
Phone (515) 263-3495
Fax (515) 263-3498
Cell (515) 210-7475
