[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

It will be a kindler, gentler campaign to ban gay marriage, Frank Schubert, who will manage the effort to approve the initiative, told a meeting of the American Association of Political Consultants in Sacramento on Monday.
 
Predicting it will rival the presidential race for attention, Schubert said he will run a "positive, uplifting campaign."
 
"There will not be any gay bashing in our campaign," he said. "If other supporters try it, we will do everything we can to stop it."
 
Schubert noted that more than 500,000 signatures were gathered by 27,000 volunteers (not paid signature gatherers) and he expects a coalition of 100,000 supporters at the state, regional, and local level to organize to promote it. Although he wouldn't put a dollar figure on the race, he expected significant sums to be spent on both sides, with much of it coming from online sources.
 
The GOP consultant said about one-third of the electorate is up for grabs on the initiative, and his side will run a focused campaign focusing on messages to reach this group. Although he wouldn't get into specifics, he noted that "every culture in the history of mankind has recognized it (marriage) as between a man and a woman."
 

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

California Republicans: put a fork in it.
 
That's the word from respected Republican consultant Frank Schubert of Schubert Flint Public Affairs, speaking before a meeting of the American Association of Political Consultants in Sacramento earlier today
 
Schubert made the remarks when asked about the impact of the presidential race on the gay marriage initiative on this November's ballot. He said since the presidential race was "potentially over" in California already, so the battle over the initiative would stand on its own.
 
So much for California being in play for McCain.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

A solid majority of Americans believe that Barack Obama will win the presidency. Oddly enough, though Obama holds support among younger voters, they are the least optimistic that he will win.

Young voters,in fact, may be key in this year's election. "All key indicators andtrends point to a predicted record turnout of young people voting thiscoming November," predicted CIRCLE director Peter Levine.

Today's Sacramento Bee has a rundown of the path to gay marriage in the state, from Gov. Deukmejian's 1984 veto of an anti-discrimination bill to this year's Supreme Court decision.

There's more... 

[courtesy of Blog for America]

The Los Angeles Times reports on a constitutional amendment initiative in California which would outlaw marriage equality:

Setting the stage for a political showdown, the California secretary of state today said an initiative barring gay marriage had enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot.

The proposal would amend the state Constitution to define marriage as a union "between a man and a woman" and undo last month's historic California Supreme Court ruling, which found that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was unconstitutional.

Danny

Communications Director

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

For the first time in the poll's history, the Field Poll reveals that gay marriage is favored by a majority of Californians: 51-42. On the ballot initiative, it seems to be going down at a 43%-51% clip. The full poll should be out tomorrow morning.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]