State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) wants Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) to “honor the commitment he made to me” on the marriage equality bill she sponsors.
Weinberg issued a statement this evening in response to Sweeney’s comment at the League of Municipalities today that “the main issue right now is the economy” and the senate should consider the gay marriage bill at an unspecified later time.
“As the prime sponsor of the Marriage Equality Act, I am urging our current Majority Leader to honor the commitment he made to me to move this important civil rights bill forward. We have the ability in the legislature to talk about this bill and address the economic crisis at the same time,” said Weinberg. “I received commitments from the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as from Majority Leader Sweeney that they would allow this bill to move forward. It will be a disappointment to so many in the grassroots of our party as well as to me personally if this commitment is not honored.”
Update, 9:42pm -- Citing a miscommunication with Sweeney, Weinberg offered this revised statement:
“I think there has been a miscommunication between Steve Sweeney and myself. I look forward to talking to him personally. It really is up to Senate President Dick Codey to make a decision about pushing this bill forward, and the Judiciary Committee Chair [state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) has informed me that he will post the bill.”
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“I would expect the Republicans to want to make an effort in Gloucester County. But if anyone thinks we’re going to sit still and let them take it, they’re crazy.” -- Senate President/Gloucester County Freeholder Stephen Sweeney.
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Isn't Codey still Senate President...
till the end of the year? Shouldn't Loretta be harranguing Codey instead of Sweeney to post the bill? The senate dems are a mess of confusion and infighting.
Get used to it
I guess poor Loretta Weinberg just got a taste of what life is going to be like under the totalitarian Norcross regime. Poor woman...one more misstatement like this and she might be banished to Siberia.
Today's poll
NJ residents? Not likely voters or even registered voters?
Why is it
that those against changing our long established laws need to fight this issue? We are not proposing changes, yet it seems we are the ones that need to pursue Constitutional Amendments just to maintain what has always existed.
In America’s history, when an aggrieved group believes our laws are unjust, it is that group that convinces the rest of society of their plight and circumstance. Then they take the necessary steps to get the matter resolved by passing a Constitutional Amendment. This how women were given the right to vote (19th Amendment) and the voting age was reduced to eighteen years of age (26th Amendment).
Women were not given the right to vote because some judge or legislative body decided that the definition of man should be changed to include women. 18, 19, and 20 year olds were not permitted to vote because some judge decided they were as mature as a 21 year old and therefore should be able to vote. I also want to point out that not one woman voted to pass the 19th Amendment, not one person under the age of twenty-one voted to pass the 26th Amendment. These Amendments passed because society, as a whole, agreed that these changes were justified.
It should not be up to defenders of marriage to pass amendments to secure the long established concept of marriage. Homosexuals and their supporters should be the ones required to pass an amendment to effect the change they seek. They also have a significant advantage that neither blacks, nor women, nor those under twenty-one enjoyed when they sought to make changes to our laws. They will not be denied from voting for the amendment.