4) Romney gained national attention for supporting the marriage amendment initiative but did little to help the initiative succeed. Despite pleas from pro-family forces, Romney did little to assist them as if he knew the amendment effort was destined to fail. He didn’t even contribute a cent to the effort. Indeed, according to one of the state’s leading pro-family organizers, Brian Camenker, Romney seemed to not even care about organizing the grassroots for the upcoming initiative battle:
In the aftermath of the Goodridge decision, pro-family forces started to organize a coalition and large rallies were held in support of a series of constitutional amendments, but Romney did nothing to help rally the grassroots. During this same time he was running for president and was raising millions for his campaign but he did not donate one cent to the pro-marriage forces. Romney did show up for two large rallies at which there were television cameras but that’s about it.(14)
Even at a 2005 press conference Romney held in support of a second Constitutional Amendment, he avoided all mention of the morality of tradition marriage. Instead, he focused on the concept of “choice”:
I think it’s important that in any discussion related to marriage that we should reiterate time and gain our view that individuals in our society should be able to make the choices they want in their lives….(15)
Romney’s rhetoric sounds like something that would be stated at a press conference held by opponents of the initiative – not exactly a good rallying speech. Moreover, after the TV cameras were gone, Romney would disappear from the marriage battle altogether. Here’s how the Boston Herald reported Romney’s inaction on a third marriage initiative:
Despite his fervent opposition to gay marriage as governor, Mitt Romney the presidential candidate all but abandoned the cause in the Bay State this week, sitting on the sidelines as a ballot initiative to ban guy nuptials crashed in the Legislature. In the critical days leading up to yesterday’s vote, Romney did not make a single phone call in support of the gay marriage ban, Republican Lawmakers said….the vote solidified the legal status of gay marriage in Massachusetts after 3 years of contentious debate…Romney’s absence from the gay marriage fight in Massachusetts was part of a broader collapse in support that left the ballot initiative with no galvanizing leader at its most critical moment. (16)
Even the homosexual press was wondering where Romney was:
If I were a member of the VoteOnMarriage.org coalition or a signer of the anti-gay marriage petition…..I’d be furious with Gov. Mitt Romney today. I’d be wondering where he’s been the last two years on the marriage issue. Imagine if Romney had held a rally on the State House steps before the Nov. 9 constitutional convention (ConCon) and thousands of people had shown up to loudly demand that lawmakers take a vote on the marriage amendment. Romney might have change the outcome of the ConCon… The only thing motivating this governor is personal ambition. The likely reason for his failure to hold a raucous rally prior to the Nov. 9 ConCon was his calculation that he had absolutely nothing to gain from it. What if he held the rally and the measure died anyway? Too risky. SoRomney waited and held his made-for-TV-ad spectacular long after it could have any impact whatsoever on the actual debate….(17)
At the “made-for-TV- ad spectacular” speech referred to above, Romney gained national attention but it was too late to really change the course of things. In a speech given three weeks earlier inside a church, Romney implied that those who oppose the choices made by homosexuals are engaged in “discrimination and bigotry” which was the same type of bogus argument used by the Supreme Court justices who issued the Goodridge ruling. No wonder this initiative failed. Romney was insulting those who supported the initiative. It is difficult to not conclude that Romney used the marriage initiatives as an opportunity to garner national headlines portraying himself as a “pro-family” presidential candidate. (18)
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