Oberweis: Marriage belongs on state ballot

Oberweis: Marriage belongs on state ballot

By Matthew DeFour Staff writer
The Beacon News
Aurora, Illinois
January 25, 2006


AURORA — Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis announced Tuesday his support for a campaign to pass an Illinois marriage amendment, requiring the state to recognize marriage only between a man and a woman.

"I'm here today to renew our efforts to help get this issue on the ballot, so that voters in Illinois can truly express their own beliefs and their own desires on this particular issue," the Aurora dairy magnate said from the pulpit of the Courtyard Gaslite Wedding Chapel in Aurora.

The Protect Marriage Illinois initiative seeks to put an advisory referendum on the November ballot. The referendum calls for the Illinois General Assembly to put a binding marriage amendment on the ballot in 2008.

Since last fall, the Protect Marriage petition drive has raised about a third of the 283,111 required signatures, according to Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute.

Oberweis submitted a list of 300 signatures and a $2,000 donation to the campaign at Tuesday's event.

He also issued a challenge to GOP frontrunner Judy Baar Topinka, who he will face in the March 21 Republican primary, urging her "to take a stand on this issue and let us know where she believes the right effort is."

"Judy is very clear and forthright about this," Topinka's campaign manager Terry Barnich said in response. "Judy believes that marriage is between a biological man and a biological woman. That is the law in Illinois."

The Illinois Family Institute has rallied behind the marriage amendment effort following the passage of similar amendments or laws in 19 states recognizing marriage as solely between a man and a woman.

"Our goal is to add Illinois to a list of marriage friendly states that have done all they could to protect marriage from being redefined by arrogant, active judges," LaBarbera said.

Opponents of the measure, however, point to a June 2005 poll that found that although 48 percent of registered voters in Illinois opposed same-sex marriage, 67 percent oppose amending the state constitution. Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, a gay civil rights organization, compared Oberweis' endorsement to his previous stance against illegal immigration.

"Jim Oberweis thinks he can win elections through division and bigotry," Garcia said. "If they're so concerned about marriage, why aren't they proposing a ban on divorce."

"I have been accused by the press of being too direct, too blatant, too clear in my initiatives for the last four years," Oberweis said Tuesday. "... The fact of the matter is this is something I believe in."

01/25/06