Washington – Focus on the Family Action today is using newspaper ads to attack Sen. Ken Salazar and 15 other lawmakers who don’t support a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The Colorado Springs conservative group’s ads target at least one senator in each of 13 states.
Ads running in the The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News feature a freckle-faced boy and the question, “Why doesn’t Senator Salazar believe every child needs a mother and a father?” They ask readers to call the Colorado Democrat and “urge him to support the Marriage Protection Amendment.”
Radio advertisements with the same message started May 22 and will run through Friday.
The Senate in June is expected to consider the marriage amendment, which is sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.
“Sen. Salazar from the beginning has portrayed himself as a moderate,” said Amanda Banks, federal-issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “Marriage is not a conservative or a right-wing issue. It’s a common-sense position to support marriage.”
Salazar has said he believes marriage should be limited to a man and a woman but that the issue should be decided by the states.
“Ads from lobbying groups don’t affect Sen. Salazar’s vote,” Salazar spokesman Drew Nannis said.
It’s the latest clash between Salazar and the group headed by James Dobson. They have swung at each other twice before in heated word battles dealing with judicial nominees.
In April 2005, Salazar called Focus’ political tactics “un- Christian” and accused it of “hijacking” Christianity for the Republican Party.
Focus on the Family Action ads targeting lawmakers also ran in Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota.
The group picked states where it thought it could have the most impact, such as predominantly Republican states with a Democratic senator. It also targeted Republican senators opposed to the amendment.
The ads will draw attention but won’t have much affect on the amendment vote, said political analyst Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. The issue isn’t new, he said, so most senators have decided how to vote and how to explain their vote.
“It’s trying to keep people’s temperature high on these divisive social issues,” he said of the ad purchase.
Constitutional amendments must pass by two-thirds votes in both houses of Congress and then be ratified by legislatures in three-fourths of the states. The U.S. Constitution has not been amended for 14 years.
A constitutional amendment parallel to Allard’s, sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., failed to win passage in the House in 2004. Lawmakers voted 227-186 for the legislation, 49 votes short of the two-thirds needed.
