Governor will veto same-sex marriage bill

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/07/MNsamesex07.DTL

The Assembly's 41-35 vote -- the one-vote majority needed to pass the bill -- forced Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the eve of a divisive November special election, into the awkward role of being the first U.S. governor to decide if gays can marry.

The bill would have rewritten the state's definition of marriage as between ``two persons,'' instead of as a union between ``a man and a woman.'' Schwarzenegger had 30 days to sign or veto the bill. If he had taken no action, the bill would have become law, and California would have become the second state behind Massachusetts to legally sanction same-sex marriage and the first to do so through legislation, not a court order.

Peter Ragone, a spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose decision to defiantly issue marriage certificates helped spur the national debate, said the mayor applauded the Assembly's decision but suggested Schwarzenegger would be a tougher sell: ``He has been hard to pin down on this one.''

Indeed, the vote forced Schwarzenegger into taking a stand on one of the most contentious issues in modern-day politics on the eve of his planned November special election.

To continue to receive the backing of deep-pocketed Republican donors and to further his political career, many political analysts said Schwarzenegger had to veto the bill.

Others thought it wasn't a given Schwarzenegger would veto it. He has made contradictory remarks on the topic, they noted, and Schwarzenegger's personal views on gay marriage have always remained somewhat of a mystery.

In an interview with Jay Leno on ``The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' last year, the governor said he would be ``fine'' with gay marriage. At other times, Schwarzenegger has said he opposes gay marriage and supports the status quo: the state's current domestic partnership laws, which grant same sex couples many, but not all, of the rights and obligations of married couples.

"The governor believes that the people spoke when they vote

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