And stay out!
Apr. 26th, 2004 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77Many governors do TV spots advertising their states' tourism destinations & investment opportunities: think of Tom Ridge in his pre-9/11 days, assuring us that we had "a friend in Pennsylvania," or Arnold Schwarzenegger's current fun-in-the-sun spots for "KollyFORNya."
On the other hand, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney seems determined to keep certain tourists away from the Bay State: Having been unable to evade or forestall the consequences of the state supreme court's ruling on gay marriage, Romney has had to fall back on a 1913 law that he says allows him to deny marriage licenses to gay couples from out of state.
The connotations of Romney's public statements aren't particularly flattering to Massachusetts: in effect, he appears to be painting his own state as a legal leper colony, a sick ward threatening to infect Middle America with same-sex matrimony ... If trashing your own state doesn't seem like much of a re-election strategy, requiring gay couples to move to Massachusetts in order to get married may not be that smart either: Town clerks in the Commonwealth handle voter registration, as well as marriage licenses.
But if Romney doesn't seem to be postioning himself very adroitly for a another term as governor, a reputation as a desperate defender of "traditional marriage" certainly could be useful to him, if he wants to start building a relationship with Republican presidential primary voters, nationwide.
On the other hand, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney seems determined to keep certain tourists away from the Bay State: Having been unable to evade or forestall the consequences of the state supreme court's ruling on gay marriage, Romney has had to fall back on a 1913 law that he says allows him to deny marriage licenses to gay couples from out of state.
The connotations of Romney's public statements aren't particularly flattering to Massachusetts: in effect, he appears to be painting his own state as a legal leper colony, a sick ward threatening to infect Middle America with same-sex matrimony ... If trashing your own state doesn't seem like much of a re-election strategy, requiring gay couples to move to Massachusetts in order to get married may not be that smart either: Town clerks in the Commonwealth handle voter registration, as well as marriage licenses.
But if Romney doesn't seem to be postioning himself very adroitly for a another term as governor, a reputation as a desperate defender of "traditional marriage" certainly could be useful to him, if he wants to start building a relationship with Republican presidential primary voters, nationwide.
