Gay Marriage Halo Effect By JOE NOCERA Published: February 20, 2012 On Thursday, Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, announced tough new teacher evaluation standards. Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post was so pleased that it put the news on its front page, with the headline, “Gov’s Class Act.” Liberal supporters of the teachers’ union, so far as I could tell, basically said nothing.
That same day, in neighboring New Jersey, the State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage — something that Cuomo had fiercely championed in New York last year, and the passage of which brought him great acclaim from liberal and gay rights groups. In New Jersey, however, the reaction of the governor to the passage of the bill was altogether different: Chris Christie, the tough-talking conservative — who has been pummeling unions since he took office — vowed to veto the marriage bill. Which he did, the very next day. Christie’s veto was widely seen as a political maneuver: “Frankly, I don’t think Chris Christie has an antigay bone in his body,” Steven Goldstein, the chairman of Garden State Equity, told The Times’s Kate Zernike. Christie’s boisterous anti-union rhetoric and extreme budget-cutting, among other things, gave rise to a Christie boomlet in the early stages of this presidential campaign season. Though Christie decided not to run, he will almost certainly be a leading contender if he runs in 2016. Hence his supposed need to stay on the right side of the social conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage. (Christie says he wants the voters to decide whether homosexuals should marry.) Yet if Christie’s presumed motivation for opposing same-sex marriage was political, why doesn’t anyone ever seem to mention the political benefits reaped by Cuomo in New York for supporting it? I am not suggesting that his belief in the rights of gays and lesbians to marry isn’t genuine. But surely, there was a political calculus as well. In effect, it has given him a pass among Democratic Party liberals, even as many of his policies have been downright Chris Christie-like. Even before taking office, for instance, Cuomo gave an interview to Nick Confessore of The Times laying out his strategy for countering “the well-financed labor unions he believes have bullied previous governors and lawmakers into making bad decisions.” He proposed cutting billions from Medicaid, and instituting medical malpractice reform, which would limit what patients could get in malpractice cases. His first budget squeezed savings from schools, health care and social services. He initially opposed extending a so-called millionaires’ tax (though, eventually, he grudgingly conceded). He has called for tuition increases at the State University System, and for limiting retirement benefits for new city and state workers. He has pushed through the Legislature a 2 percent cap on property tax increases — the exact same amount as Chris Christie’s property tax cap in New Jersey. Just the other day, The Times published an article about how Cuomo is attempting to consolidate power — just as Christie is accused of doing in New Jersey. Without question, Cuomo has done all this with a finesse that the blunt-spoken Christie lacks; that’s one reason liberals haven’t been up in arms even as he has chipped away at many of their sacred cows. “I am a progressive Democrat who’s broke,” he told Confessore in another interview, suggesting that he was simply doing the tough things that had to be done, given the difficult economy, and the budget shortfalls he faced. But his role in the same-sex marriage fight has also been a huge factor. The fight took place soon after that first budget was passed, and it overshadowed everything that had come before. Cuomo had promised to support same-sex marriage when he was running for governor, and, after it passed, he was lionized. It also took place after a string of same-sex marriage defeats in other states, which heightened the importance of its passage in New York. In retrospect, Cuomo helped turn the tide. That’s also why, even now, months later, his halo has lost little of its luster. There is one other point worth mentioning about the political calculus of both Cuomo and Christie. It is becoming increasingly evident that on the issue of same-sex marriage, the New York governor is on the right side of history, and the New Jersey governor is on the wrong side. Since Cuomo signed New York’s marriage bill, Washington State has approved a same-sex marriage law and Maryland could approve one this week. Other State Legislatures have bills in the works. Most conservatives under the age of 30 view same-sex marriage as a nonissue. Suddenly, four years seems like a very long time. By 2016, it is not inconceivable that same-sex marriage will be a widely accepted part of American life. In which case, Cuomo will have gained another political advantage by supporting it when he did. And Christie’s veto, meanwhile, may not look so politically astute after all. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/opinion/nocera-gay-marriage-halo-effect.html -- Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. Have a great day, Tommy -- Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. Have a great day, Tommy -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
