07/18/06 Death Penalty, Gay Marriage Ban are Backed

The Capital Times
Tuesday, July 18, 2006

By Ben Broeren The Capital Times

The latest Badger Poll shows Wisconsin residents narrowly support banning gay marriage and civil unions in the state constitution and also support reinstating the death penalty.

Opponents of the referendums, to be held Nov. 7, still believe both can be defeated.

Through phone interviews between June 23 and July 2, the UW Survey Center found 52.5 percent of respondents supported a ban on gay marriage and legal arrangements "identical or similar to marriage," compared to 43.8 who opposed it. The margin of error was 4 percent.

"I think it looks pretty good," Joe Wineke, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, said today, referring to defeating the gay marriage amendment. "With the margin of error it could be a tie. It's still a horse race."

Fair Wisconsin spokesman Josh Freker said he also was optimistic about the statewide campaign to defeat the gay marriage ban.

Freker said a Badger Poll in 2003 showed more support for the ban than today.

"We are making progress in Wisconsin," he said today.

In the latest poll, opposition to same sex marriage was greater for people older than 30 years, men, and Republicans.

Freker said volunteers were reaching out to senior groups. "Seniors would be greatly affected by the second part of the clause banning civil unions," Freker said. "Many senior citizens don't remarry after a spouse has died, though they still want to have legal arrangements where they can receive a pension."

Support for civil unions was greater, 58.7 percent, according to the poll; however, support dropped to 51.5 percent when referenced to same-sex couples.

"It's not about civil unions," said Julaine Appling, CEO of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin. "It's about whether we want to have fatherless and motherless households," she said.

Appling said that she expected support to be higher in the fall, adding that in every state where a ban on same sex marriage was passed, support was seven to 10 points higher than what was reported in the polls.

The Badger Poll also showed support for the death penalty when convictions are reinforced by DNA evidence, with 55.6 percent in support and 37.3 percent in opposition. When life imprisonment without parole was presented as an alternative to the death penalty in the poll, the alternative was preferred over the death penalty by nearly 5 percent.

"When presented with an alternative, Wisconsin voters will take a more sensible approach," Wineke said. "We feel pretty good about those results."

\ E-mail: bbroeren@madison.com