House rejects marriage debate

DES MOINES -- The Iowa House Tuesday rejected a move to bring a constitutional amendment to declare marriage as only between a man and a woman -- not gay couples -- out of committee.

The procedural vote, known as House Rule 60, to pull House Joint Resolution 8 out of committee and place it directly on the debate calendar, was rejected 46-50 along party lines.

Three Democratic co-sponsors of the resolution -- Reps. Kurt Swaim of Bloomfield, Dolores Mertz of Ottosen and Brian Quirk of New Hampton -- voted not to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote on its merits. One Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Ralph Watts of Adel, was absent when the vote was taken.

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, was disappointed by the outcome and puzzled why seven Democrats who had supported the amendment in 2005 voted against his motion to consider it this year.

He said the seven, including Reps. Swati Dandekar of Marion, had reversed their earlier votes. Support for the amendment was bipartisan when the House voted on HJR 8 in 2005, "and we had hoped that it would be bipartisan today," Rants said. "Apparently, Democratic leadership has forced them to knuckle under."

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, defended his caucus, saying Democrats were voting on the process, not the issue.

In the Senate, GOP senators began circulating a petition of declaration to similarly force a floor debate in that chamber.

Sen. David Mulder, R-Sioux Center, said there are 20 signatures on the petition -- 18 Republicans and two Democrats. Sen. Mary Lundby, R-Marion, is the only Senate Republican to decline. It takes 26 signatures to pull an issue out of committee and bring it to the Senate floor.

To amend the Iowa Constitution, a joint resolution has to be approved in exact form this session by the House and Senate and again by the 83rd General Assembly that will be elected this November before it would be placed on the ballot for consideration by Iowa voters.

Leaders of the Democratic-run Legislature have said they plan to await the outcome of an Iowa Supreme Court challenge to a district judge ruling that declared Iowa's marriage law unconstitutional before deciding what action, if any, would be appropriate. Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson tossed out Iowa's law defining only marriage between a man and a woman as invalid last year.

A vast majority of Democratic representatives support marriage between a man and a woman, McCarthy said, "but they believe the judicial process should be allowed to come to finality before you alter the constitution."