Keith Ellison were among those scheduled to appear.ĭFL Gov. Minnesota United has amassed a long list of supportive business leaders, clergy and top political leaders, many of whom were set to appear at the group's booth over the weekend-long Pride festival. Paul residents Kate Wulf and Marianne Christianson talking about how they believe the amendment would exclude some Minnesotans from being able to marry. One features Minnesotans talking about what marriage means to them. In coming months, its members hope to ignite 1 million conversations across the state so Minnesotans understand their arguments for how the amendment would hurt the state's gay and lesbian residents.Īmendment opponents have launched two online advertisements. Minnesotans United already has the look and feel of a frantic, late-stage campaign. Supporters say that would block judges and future Legislatures from tampering with the law and afford the strongest legal protection to traditional, heterosexual marriage.
The amendment would take the prohibition a step further, enshrining the definition of marriage in the state's constitution. Minnesota law already prohibits same-sex marriage. In churches, homes and on the airwaves, Minnesotans will spent the next five months wrestling with whether to approve the constitutional amendment. "Since nobody had started to buy, we could get an incredible rate," Carlbom said. 6 election - a rarity among perennially cash-starved campaigns. So rather than sit on a pile of cash through the summer, the campaign has made a strategic gamble to buy $1 million in television advertising during the weeks leading up to the Nov. Leaders of Minnesotans United already are fretting about a late fall advertising blitz by amendment proponents. But, he acknowledges, opponents "have raised a lot of money and we expect they will vastly outspend us at the end of the day." A California political strategist who organized several amendment campaigns, Schubert said that, "We have been given a great blessing to have this conversation and a tremendous amount of time to engage the public."
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This fall they plan to unleash a torrent of television ads similar to those that swayed voters from California to Maine to North Carolina.įrank Schubert, campaign manager for pro-amendment Minnesota for Marriage, said he expects his side to have the resources it needs. They continue reaching out to churches and producing videos to engage Minnesotans in the conversation. Marriage amendment supporters are working their own battle-tested strategy, quietly. And it's going to take all of us working together." "Minnesota has one chance, we have one chance to beat this thing.
"In other states, we've made the mistake of spreading out all of our energy and not having a focused effort," said campaign manager Richard Carlbom. This unprecedented early summer blitz formally begins this weekend at the Twin Cities Pride festival, a gathering of 300,000 gays, lesbians and supporters who are expected to make up the backbone of the campaign. While most campaigns quietly build until fall, Minnesotans United for All Families is already fully staffed with 72 paid organizers, thousands of volunteers, eight offices scattered throughout the state and a fevered fundraising operation that has already reeled in $4.6 million. Mindful of 30 consecutive losses across the nation, the Minnesota group trying to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is testing an entirely new strategy that envisions a fierce and unblinking push that lasts from now until Election Day.