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Blue_In_AK

(46,436 posts)
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 07:33 PM Mar 2013

Of all the senators to favor gay marriage, Mark Begich may have most on the line

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130326/alaskas-mark-begich-joins-moderate-senators-support-gay-marriage



As the U.S. Supreme Court considers two historic gay marriage cases this week, the politics of the issue are also in the spotlight. Five US senators, most of them not liberal -- Rob Portman, Claire McCaskill, Mark Warner, Jay Rockefeller, and Mark Begich -- have all recently announced support for a right to same-sex marriage, the last four this week.

There’s a pattern to these announcements. In the case of Sen. Portman, a Republican, the change of heart came because of his gay son. And he’s from Ohio, a battleground state that mirrors the politics of the nation as a whole, which have shown a steady, marked shift toward approval of same-sex marriage. Nationally, the number is now well above 50 percent.

Senator McCaskill of Missouri is a Democrat in a Republican-leaning state who was just reelected and won’t be up again until 2018. Senator Warner (D) of Virginia – like Ohio, a big swing state – is up for reelection in 2014, and probably safe. Senator Rockefeller (D), a liberal, represents increasingly conservative West Virginia, but he is retiring.

Senator Begich of Alaska might be the closest call of the four: He’s a Democrat up for reelection next year in a Republican state. And support for gay marriage in Alaska is at just 43 percent, according to Public Policy Polling. But Begich seems to be counting on a libertarian streak in his state that goes beyond gay marriage.

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