Austin R. Nimocks, left, is the senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. He's joined by state Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington.

Austin R. Nimocks, left, is the senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. He's joined by state Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington at a Roundhouse press conference on Monday.

SANTA FE — The Republican Party of New Mexico, with help from the Arizona-based conservative Christian group Alliance Defense Fund, released a new poll Monday of New Mexicans’ attitudes about domestic partnerships — but the poll misstated the legal facts surrounding the issue.

In fact, a question posed in the poll appeared to state the opposite of what actually happened when domestic partnerships bills were passed in other states.

The poll, commissioned by the state GOP, found that more New Mexicans were in favor of domestic partnerships (47 percent) than opposed (42 percent). But that support fell when individuals were asked a question that erroneously equated domestic partnerships with same-sex marriage, with 52 percent opposing domestic partnerships compared to 42 percent supporting it.

That latter poll question specifically misstated how same-sex marriage became state law in two other states, judging from a handout given to reporters.

The question began by saying that courts in California and Connecticut had ruled that domestic partnerships were the same as same-sex marriage. Then it asked the individuals how they felt about domestic partnerships.

In fact, the courts in Connecticut and California ruled the exact opposite — that domestic partnerships – or civil unions in the case of Connecticut – were inherently legally unfair and were not the same as marriage. Because of that, the courts struck down the laws creating domestic partnerships, or civil unions, thereby allowing same-sex marriage.

“It’s just a desperate attempt to confuse the public,” Whitney Potter of the American Civil Liberties Union said of the Republican poll.

The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, called 500 registered voters in New Mexico over Feb. 17-18 and had a margin of error of 4.38 percent. The poll’s methodology was unclear because a breakdown of those who were called was not given to reporters.

Opponents of the measure now in the Legislature nonetheless cited the survey as proof that New Mexicans don’t want domestic partnerships.

“This is gay marriage in disguise and a poor disguise at that,” said Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington.

Opponents point to the potential passage of this year’s legislation to make their case that domestic partnerships are the equivalent of marriage. According to that provision, domestic partners would be subject to the same “legal obligations and responsibilities” and the same protections and benefits as afforded to “spouses, former spouses, widows or widowers.”

Beyond that, the legislation could set up a court challenge that would lead to same-sex marriage, said Austin Nimnocks of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

“The legal action in both California and Connecticut was by the courts using the exact same language as in SB 12,” Nimnocks told reporters Monday. “If that language is enacted here in New Mexico, the New Mexico Supreme Court could then finish the deal by judicially enacting same-sex marriage and imposing it upon the people.”

The ADF was founded in the 1990s by a coalition of ministries including James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Last year the ADF urged pastors across the U.S. to endorse a political candidate from the pulpit to set up a court challenge to an I.R.S. rule that prohibits churches from endorsing political candidates.

In New Mexico, meanwhile, the Catholic Church has jumped into the debate over domestic partnerships this year after two years of staying largely out of the issue, a spokesman for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops said Monday.

But supporters of domestic partnerships point out that the legislation states explicitly that domestic partnerships would create a “legal relationship that is not marriage.”

Besides, while California and Connecticut did allow marriage after starting with domestic partnerships, the court rulings were based on each state’s constitution, and not on the domestic partnership law, the American Civil Liberties Union says.

Seven of the nine states that have domestic partnerships — or civil unions — meanwhile, have not allowed gay couples to marry, the ACLU points out. In two of those states — Washington and New Jersey — courts specifically decided their constitutions did not require marriage.

The New Mexico legislation creating domestic partnerships does extend many of the same rights and responsibilities of marriage to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples in a committed relationship, said Steven Homer, a professor at University of New Mexico law school.

But unlike marriage, domestic partnerships do not unlock hundreds of federal rights that are afforded to married couples, and it does not travel from state to state, he said. In other words, if domestic partnerships were to become state law, a partnership entered into in New Mexico would not be recognized in most other states.

The vote on the domestic partnerships bill is so close in the Senate that supporters and opponents don’t know what side might win out when the legislation comes up for a vote on the Senate floor.

The issue will go to a floor vote sometime this week, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said Monday. He wouldn’t say exactly when.