FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
House Democrats Turn Deaf Ear To Iowans - Again
2/9/10 Pleasant Hill, IA -
House Speaker Pat Murphy today presided over a vote that confirmed
for all of Iowa that he and his caucus ought to shut off the lights in
the State House and go home to look for legitimate work. With the
exception of Rep. Deloris Mertz, the Democratic caucus today turned
their back on the Constitution, their assigned legislative duty, and
the people of Iowa by refusing to take action on the Iowa Marriage
Amendment. Reacting to the vote, IFPC Action spokesman Bryan English
said, “If Speaker Murphy intends to allow courts to make law in Iowa,
he ought to stop stealing his paycheck from the taxpayers and go look
for other work.”
House Republicans, on the other hand, responded to the calls and
e-mails from their constituents and made certain that every Member of
the House went on record with their support for or opposition to the
Iowa Marriage Amendment. The lone exception was Rep. Mark Kuhn who had
been excused from today’s vote to attend to a personal matter.
After the vote, English said, “Real marriage enjoys broad
bi-partisan support among Iowa citizens, but the Iowa Democrat Party
has attempted to make it a partisan issue. Almost to a person, they all
say that they support real marriage when they are talking to their
constituents, but today those constituents got a good look at who
really represents them.”
He continued, “Democrat Members will now go home and try to say
that procedural votes don’t matter, but nobody is buying that story any
more. Members of the House have had an opportunity to reassert their
proper role as lawmakers, and to reaffirm the only definition of
marriage, both last session and again this morning. On both occasions,
they failed to do the right thing.”
Shortly after last spring’s Supreme Court Opinion, a crowd of over
500 gathered at the Capitol to lobby the legislature to bring the Iowa
Marriage Amendment to the people for a vote. A crowd estimated at 1000
gathered at the Capitol on January 12th of this year to tell their
Lawmakers to “Let Us Vote” on the Iowa Marriage Amendment. Lawmakers
have been inundated with calls, e-mails, letters, and personal visits
from constituents asking them to let us vote. The communications were
so one sided, that Speaker Murphy recently sent an e-mail to a special
interest group that promotes sexual deviance asking for people to come
and help offset the message of marriage supporters.
English said, “Speaker Murphy and his caucus can only ignore the
people of Iowa for so long. We will remember in November.” He concluded
by saying, “We look forward to working with the new Speaker in the next
session to pass the Iowa Marriage Amendment.”
The Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION has long been a proponent of
pro-family public policy and an active supporter of preserving the
institution of marriage through passage of the Iowa Marriage Amendment.
Their LUV Iowa effort, which stands for “Let Us Vote,” has been
organizing affiliate groups in cities all across the state since last
April. More information about the LUV Iowa movement is available at http://www.LUVIowa.com.
CONTACT:
Bryan M. English
IowaFamilyPolicyCenter / Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION
Phone (515) 263-3495
Fax (515) 263-3498
Cell (515) 210-7475
