I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
SANTA FE — The Republican Party of New Mexico said Tuesday that it will stand by a poll it commissioned, even though the poll incorrectly stated how same-sex marriage became law in two states. The survey also included a question that implied that passage of domestic-partnership legislation would legalize same-sex marriage, which it would not.
“The results of the poll are clear; most New Mexicans believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman,” state GOP Executive Director Whitney Cheshire told the Independent.
The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies Feb. 17-18, found that 47 percent of New Mexicans favored domestic partnerships compared to 42 percent who opposed it. But that support fell when individuals were asked a question that equated domestic partnerships with same-sex marriage, with 52 percent opposing domestic partnerships compared to 42 percent supporting it. You can see the GOP poll questions here (pdf).
The poll’s third question mis-stated how same-sex marriage came to become law in two other states.
The question reads: “In two states, California and Connecticut, the State Supreme Courts have ruled that domestic partnership legislation like the law proposed in New Mexico is same-sex marriage. Knowing this, do you favor or oppose the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act?”
In fact, the courts in Connecticut and California ruled the exact opposite — that domestic partnerships, or civil unions in the case of Connecticut – were unfair because they established a separate and therefore inherently unequal institution for a minority group. Citing equal protection under the law, each state’s Supreme Court struck down the laws creating domestic partnerships. The courts also found a “fundamental right to marry” and ruled that marriage was available to gay and lesbian couples.
Cheshire would not say how the pollster came to use the misleading language in the third question. But she defended the poll’s equation of domestic partnerships with same-sex marriage.
“In both court cases mentioned in the poll, the courts redefined marriage to include same-sex marriage since domestic partners were given the same rights and responsibilities as spouses in marriage, thanks to legislation like SB 12,” she said.
Following the question about Connecticut and California, the poll’s next question continued to equate domestic partnerships with same-sex marriage. It asked: “And, do you favor or oppose legalizing same sex marriage in New Mexico?”
Supporters of the domestic partnerships legislation have pointed out that the bill’s language states explicitly that domestic partnerships would create a “legal relationship that is not marriage.”
Besides, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has argued, 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.
Seven of the nine states that have domestic partnerships or civil unions, meanwhile, have not allowed gay couples to marry, the ACLU has pointed out. In two of those states — Washington and New Jersey — courts specifically decided their constitutions did not require marriage.
Cheshire did not say how much the state Republican Party paid for the survey.
