Secretive GOP Poll Shows Plurality of New Mexicans Support Domestic Partnerships

Well, that's when the telephone poll asks if the 500 respondents favor domestic partnerships, like the kind proposed in SB 12. In that case, 47% do versus 42% who don't. I guess the New Mexico GOP didn't like that result, so they had their hired Republican polling firm ask another question -- on gay marriage -- which has nothing to do with the proposed bill. An increased percentage were against it. No surprise there.

However, we really don't know how the poll questions were asked, exactly, or how the poll was administered in terms of demographics and weighting. That's because the Republican polling firm hired by the NM GOP has so far ignored requests to release the complete polling data, questions and cross tabs. All we have is the word of the New Mexico Republican Party in a press release on this, and we all know what that's worth.

A major problem with the NM GOP's disinformation campaign is that SB 12, the domestic partnership bill, doesn't just apply to GLBT folks. It provides for a civil domestic partnership license to be available to all unmarried couples regardless of gender. It is NOT a gay marriage bill. In fact, it says so in no uncertain terms right in the bill.

Bottom line: The poll bought by the State GOP shows most New Mexicans surveyed support domestic partnerships. It also reportedly shows that if gay marriage is the issue, support falls. As Matt at New Mexico FBI writes, "So they found that making a false argument against the bill makes people oppose the legislation. I'm sure that saying that the legislation mandates that people have gay marriages with terrorists would make it seem less popular as well. But that doesn't make it true."

The bill's sponsor agrees:

"The poll is bogus because they are using information from other states that does not apply to New Mexico,” said Senator Cisco McSorley of Albuquerque.

Court Decisions Not Related to Domestic Partnership Laws
We must be very close to winning Senate passage of this bill, given the timing of the bogus poll and the right-wingers who are out and about in the media spreading falsehoods. Like this:

“This domestic partnership bill before the Senate is a threat because it is gay marriage in disguise, but not a very good disguise at that,” Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, said. “The supreme courts in other states have ruled domestic partnership, like the bill being proposed in New Mexico, is same-sex marriage.”

Not true, according to the ACLU. Court actions on gay marriage in Connecticut and California were based on the unique constitutions of those states, not on any domestic partnership bills. In fact, those are the only two states -- out of nine -- that passed domestic partnership or civil union laws whose top courts eventually ruled that gay marriage was allowed by their state constitutions. Moreover, in two of those states -- Washington and New Jersey -- courts specifically decided their constitutions did NOT require marriage, according to the ACLU.

In other words, domestic partnership legislation and state supreme court actions on gay marriage are unrelated. UNRELATED. Bogus polling. Bogus logic. Bogus arguments. All coming from the conservative part of the spectrum.

The Old Bait and Switch
Sen. Sharer and many other opponents of equal civil liberties under the law like to mix apples and oranges when they're making their arguments. When you can't depend on facts, it can be tempting to rely on misstatements and distortions to try and make your case. And that's exactly what the New Mexico Republic Party and domestic partnership opponents are doing. According to the GOP's own secretive poll, they're losing the argument on domestic partnerships with New Mexicans, so they're doing the old bait and switch. The Bush-Rove tactics continue within the GOP even after the two failed politicos have left the White House and our nation in a shambles.

Also see Jim Baca's Only in New Mexico blog for his take on the GOP's transparent effort to confuse New Mexicans about the domestic partnership bill by using what Baca calls a "push poll."

To see our previous coverage of the battle over the New Mexico domestic partnership bill, visit our archive.