[[I S S U E S]] * On September 8, one day after the California Legislature became the first in the nation to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he would veto that bill. He contends that it goes against “the will of the people,” who in 2000 passed Proposition 22, defining marriage in California as a union between a man and a woman. “We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote,” the Republican guv declared in a written statement.
This likely won’t be the last we’ll hear about same-sex marriage in the Golden State, though. As the Los Angeles Times notes, “The California Supreme Court is likely to decide next year whether Proposition 22 and other state laws that define marriage are constitutional.” Gay-marriage opponents also want to qualify a measure for the June 2006 ballot that would ban the practice. Analysts insist that Schwarzenegger couldn’t have signed this legislation, without damaging his appeal among conservatives--his last base of support. On the other hand, observes the Times, with this veto, “Schwarzenegger may have worsened a key political problem: erosion of his image as an independent reformer who stays above partisan politics.”
READ MORE: “Where’s the Governator Now? ” (The New York Times).
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