Poll Surveys Attitudes on Gay-Marriage Issue

Stepping up the political pressure on Sen. Jack O’Connell, a conservative Christian group Thursday released a public opinion survey showing that his voting constituents overwhelmingly oppose legal recognition of marriage between gay or lesbian couples.

The Capital Resource Institute, a Sacramento-based group that focuses on family issues, commissioned the poll in O’Connell’s district because the Democratic lawmaker holds the swing vote on upcoming legislation on the issue in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

O’Connell, who lives in San Luis Obispo, remains publicly undecided on an Assembly-passed bill that would prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed out of state.

“If Jack O’Connell is truly undecided, he ought be a good representative of his voting constituents, who are 2 to 1 against legalization of gay marriage,” said Randy Thomasson, assistant director of the institute.

The poll of 300 registered voters was conducted between May 29 and June 10 in the 19th Senate District, which includes western portions of Ventura County and all of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The results show that 58% of voters in the district do not believe that “Californians should be forced to recognize” homosexual couples who travel to Hawaii to get civil marriage licenses. By comparison, 29% said they favor such legal recognition, while 11% were undecided and 2% gave no response. The pollster said the results were accurate within 5.5%.

But Ellen McCormick, legislative advocate of LIFE--California’s Lesbian, Gay and AIDS Lobby--questioned the poll’s legitimacy, given the phrasing of some of its questions. “You can turn a phrase to get any answer you want,” she said.

As for O’Connell, he said he needed more information before seriously weighing the poll results. Yet he welcomed all points of view to help him make up his mind. “All the information is helpful,” he said.