Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave is doing the right thing in backing off her anti-gay-marriage legislation, but unfortunately the Fort Morgan Republican hasn’t completely come back to reality yet.
It’s not as if she’s dedicating her career to the people and issues of her district; she’s just merely “waiting to see what happens” as courts and states battle over the gay-marriage issue.
That can mean a few things:
Musgrave strategists don’t intend to waste a perfectly good wedge issue in a non-election year (which is why we haven’t seen any other politician carry the torch this year in Congress). Perhaps she’ll be back in 2006 – just in time for congressional elections.
Her spokesman lends credibility to that theory: “She’s been working with leadership to discuss the timing of introducing it,” said Aaron Johnson.
Eleven states had measures banning gay marriage on last year’s ballot, and voters in every state approved them overwhelmingly. Some experts credit those amendments for luring more conservative-minded people to the polls, thus boosting President Bush’s turnout and contributing to GOP congressional gains.
Musgrave’s divisive national profile has made her vulnerable at home, where her 13-point margin of victory over Democrat Stan Matsunaka in 2002 was narrowed to just six points in 2004. Now she is eager to deny the impetus that led opponents to spend $2.5 million last year, fueled mostly by her stance on gay marriage.
Musgrave’s retreat will surely be accompanied by a higher profile at home, where even some friendly Republicans have wondered what it would be like to have full-time representation in Congress.
Musgrave represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, a longtime Republican stronghold that encompasses the vast eastern plains along with the cities of Greeley and Fort Collins. The district has been clobbered by falling farm commodity prices and drought in recent years, and needs a representative who can tend to its economic development and transportation needs.
The majority of voters are in the fast-growing Greeley and Fort Collins areas and aren’t as overwhelming conservative as voters on the eastern plains. The district demographics give a moderate Democrat a fighting chance, especially if the incumbent is out of state riding an anti-gay circuit rather than sticking to the needs of her constituents.
Without having to push her gay-marriage ban, Musgrave will have more time to tend her district.
We hope it’s something more than a midterm feint.
