Gay Marriage Foes Target Iowa Senate Candidate Liz Mathis

http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=9863&MediaType=1&Category=26

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is targeting Democratic candidate Liz Mathis, who is running for the Iowa Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Swati Dandekar.

The November 8 race could determine whether gay marriage is debated in the Senate.

The Democrat-controlled Senate, under the leadership of Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, has kept an effort to repeal the state's gay marriage law at bay. In February, the Republican-controlled House approved a measure that seeks to put a question on the ballot that would define marriage in the Iowa Constitution as a heterosexual union – and thereby reverse the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that brought gay marriage to the Midwest.

Gronstal has vowed to block the measure from reaching the Senate floor.

But Republican Governor Terry Branstad's appointment of Dandekar to the Iowa Utilities Board could result in Democrats losing their one-seat Senate majority. And by extension, stripping Gronstal of power. In previous sessions where the Senate was divided, leaders from both parties took turns on alternating weeks running the chamber.