Word: ballot
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...Then two things happened to upset the equilibrium. First, and no doubt most importantly, panic struck Wall Street with a force that was felt all the way to Hennepin Avenue and beyond. In Minnesota as elsewhere, John McCain flailed, Barack Obama soared, and down-ballot Democrats found that their already rosy prospects were rosier than ever. Written off by some over the summer, Franken was suddenly competitive again...
...Arizona, opponents of gay marriage are trying again, having lost no time fretting over the 48-52 loss in 2006. They've raised $7 million for a new ballot initiative - seven times what the losing effort raised two years ago, and 70 times what opponents have raised this year. The effort to forever define marriage as between one man and one woman has drawn the strong support of the Mormon Church as well as the Roman Catholic bishops in the state...
...ballot-box battles can be dispiriting for gays, who have otherwise grown used to hailing spectacular victories in the courts. Three state supreme courts - in Massachusetts, California and, just last week, Connecticut - have ruled that gays have the fundamental right to marry. Those courts have ruled that not even civil unions with all the legal trimmings of marriage can compensate. Gay-rights activists hope that Iowa's high court, will hear arguments in December and then rule as soon as January 2009 on a lower court's decision in favor of gay marriage, will bring judicial victories in state high...
Those kinds of victories are far more likely in the near term than any kind of wholesale reversal of fortune at the ballot boxes, says Kristina Wilfore, executive director of the Washington-based Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, an advocacy organization that specializes in using ballot initiatives to further liberal causes. Wilfore says her group picks its battles in fighting anti-gay-marriage amendments largely because most votes aren't even close. "We would never bring gay marriage up before the voters," she says. "This is [our opponents'] strategy." She admits they've been terribly good...
...Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, however, is fighting in Arizona in an attempt to protect gay marriage's sole Election Day success story. They've been involved in California too, though Wilfore says things there could go either way, in part because it's unclear what impact Senator Barack Obama's popularity in the state will have on the gay-marriage vote. Blacks and Hispanics, she says, are likely to vote with conservatives on gay marriage, but young people of all backgrounds tend to vote the other way. Which group will prove dominant is anyone's guess, she says...