Martinez radio ads boost gay marriage ban
The Republican Senate candidate's spots will play on Christian stations in five major markets.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published July 10, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - As the U.S. Senate started debating a proposal Friday to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage, Senate candidate Mel Martinez launched radio ads supporting the amendment and defending "the sanctity of marriage."
Martinez's first media buy, on Christian radio stations in five markets including Tampa-St. Petersburg, seeks to appeal to religious conservatives. The spots were timed to coincide with plans by churches to kick off Federal Marriage Amendment week Sunday.
"One of the reasons President Bush asked me to serve in his Cabinet is that we both share the same traditional values," Martinez says in the ad. He then calls on the state's two Democratic senators, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, to support what's known as the Marriage Protection Amendment.
Graham and Nelson oppose the amendment, although both have said they agree that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Nelson said in a statement Friday that the wording of the amendment could restrict civil rights, such as inheritances and hospital visits, and he said that "throughout our history, the Constitution has always guaranteed civil rights, not taken them away."
Graham's spokesman, Paul Anderson, said the senator's offices are receiving up to 2,000 phone calls a day from amendment backers. He said many of the calls are organized by the Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association.
"Sen. Graham has been on record on this issue for a long time. Mel Martinez is very late to the game, frankly," Anderson said.
Martinez's campaign said the ads would run until the Senate votes on the amendment late next week. The former U.S. Housing secretary and ex-chairman of Orange County also plans to address the First Baptist Church in Orlando on Sunday, in conjunction with a closed-circuit speech by James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Charles Colson, the former White House adviser who runs a nationwide prison ministry.
Like Martinez, Republican Senate front-runner Bill McCollum supports a same-sex marriage ban in the Constitution. McCollum stated his support for the amendment last July, when President Bush first proposed the amendment.
A third Republican Senate candidate, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, issued a statement Friday noting his sponsorship of a state law that banned same-sex marriages in Florida.
"Other candidates can talk about protecting Florida's families," he said. "Johnnie Byrd has a clear record of doing it."
Eight candidates are seeking the Republican Party's Senate nomination on Aug. 31.