Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter said Friday that he would support changing the state’s definition of marriage – then backed off the statement the next day.
“The statute says marriage is between a man and a woman,” Ritter said Friday to The Denver Post’s editorial board. “You know, if a bill came to my desk to change that statute, though, I would sign it – that changes the definition of it.”
When asked whether the definition should include marriage between two men, Ritter said he didn’t want to answer a hypothetical question.
“It depends on what the bill says,” he said. “I would entertain changing it, is what I’m saying.”
Referring to his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, Ritter said: “I’m just in a different place on this issue than the congressman is.”
On Saturday, however, Ritter clarified his position, saying in a statement that he would keep the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman but consider adding recognition of civil unions to the statute.
Beauprez was out of town Saturday and not available to comment. But his campaign called Ritter’s position inconsistent with his previous comments and incompatible with the beliefs of most Colorado voters.
“Let me get this straight: He’s for marriage between a man and a woman with exceptions?” said Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall. “Adding, subtracting or amending the definition of marriage is a significant departure from what he has said before.”
Beauprez opposes gay marriage but supports contractual relationships, including those for gay couples.
In July 2005, Ritter said in a question and answer session on Coloradopols.com that he supported “existing state law that defined marriage as being between a man and woman.”
This is the second time in less than three weeks that a campaign fumbled on the issue of gay marriage. After Janet Rowland was picked as Beauprez’s lieutenant governor last month, it came out that she had compared gay marriage to bestiality this year.
Colorado voters will decide in November whether to lock the marriage definition into a constitutional amendment. At the same time, they will vote on a ballot measure permitting domestic partnerships.
How big of an issue the two will play in Colorado’s gubernatorial election is still unknown.
In 2004, all 11 states that had gay-marriage bans on the ballot passed them, and those measures were credited in part for increasing Republican voter turnout.
Hans Gullickson, executive director of the state Republican Party, said that gay marriage isn’t the most critical issue this election season but that it is important.
Most voters, he said, believe marriage should only be between a man and woman.
Maybe, said state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who described Ritter’s position as consistent with most Democrats’. But most voters also don’t vote on a single issue, he said.
Tom Minnery, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, said Ritter’s position brings an urgency to writing the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman into the constitution.
“It tells us that there are politicians in addition to judges in Colorado who may overturn the definition of marriage that makes it more immediate, more necessary to amend the constitution so politicians like … Ritter can’t get at it,” Minnery said.
In the long run, the gay- related issues on Colorado’s ballot may “pyschologically balance each other out,” said Michael Cummings, political science professor at the University of Colorado, who cited other issues – the war, health care, energy, education – that appear to be taking center stage this year.
“I think gay marriage will matter to a core of Christian conservatives, but most people are concerned about pocketbook issues,” he said.
But Ritter’s nuanced position may give Republicans – who have been forced to defend a number of recent missteps by Beauprez – fodder to paint him as both a liberal and a flip-flopper.
“Ritter has benefited from looking independent,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. “If he takes a confusing position or looks like he’s changing positions, it blunts his image.”
Staff writers Mark P. Couch and Chris Frates contributed to this report.
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
