Poll: Gay marriage issue doesn’t hurt Conway

A majority of registered voters in Kentucky say they disagree with the Supreme Court’s June ruling that states must allow gay marriage, but their views seem unlikely to sway the governor’s race, a Bluegrass Poll has found.

The survey of 863 registered voters found that 53 percent oppose the court’s 5-4 ruling. But when asked whether they would be “much more likely” to vote for Democratic candidate Jack Conway because of his agreement with the ruling or be much more likely to vote for Bevin because of his opposition to it, respondents were virtually split.

An equal number of voters also said they would be somewhat more likely to vote for either candidate because of their respective positions.

Responding to another question about gay marriage, 38 percent said that clerks who have refused to issue marriage licenses on religious grounds should be removed from office, while 36 percent said they should be excused from issuing licenses.

Another 16 percent said they would favor transferring the job to a state agency, meaning a majority of voters favor some accommodations for clerks who say licensing gays to marry violates their religious beliefs.

Both Democratic political consultant Danny Briscoe and Republican consultant Ted Jackson said they were surprised the issue didn’t hurt Conway more, given that most voters think the court got it wrong.

“Those numbers are very encouraging for Conway,” said Briscoe, who, like Jackson, is not working for either campaign.

But Briscoe said the results show the Democratic Party needs to get young people — who disproportionately support gay marriage but tend not to vote as much their elders — to the polls.

The Bluegrass Poll — which was conducted by SurveyUSA for The Courier-Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, WHAS-TV and WKYT-TV — found that 53 percent of voters who are 18 to 34 years old agree with the court’s decision that made gay marriage legal nationwide.

“They need to reach out to young people on college campuses and through direct mail and let them know their vote can make a difference,” Briscoe said.

Jackson, however, said it is unlikely Conway will want to tout his position on gay marriage with any audience.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said he thinks the issue hasn’t swayed voters more because “it is a done deal and isn’t going to be reversed” and because in a race for governor there are more important issues such as education, transportation and health care that a governor affects directly.

Sabato said if Bevin emphasizes the issue, he could generate a larger turnout among his base of Christian conservatives but that would also stimulate a larger turnout among supporters of gay marriage, especially the young.

Daniel Kemp, spokesman for the Conway campaign, said in an email that the Supreme Court "issued the final word on this issue, and Jack believes it's time to move forward because the good-paying jobs are going to states with policies of inclusivity."

The Bevin campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The gay marriage case already has figured in campaign debates.

Bevin said at one earlier this month in Louisville that Conway failed his duties as attorney general when he declined to defend the state’s marriage ban on appeal.

“That a big issue to those of us in this state that believe that marriage is between a man a woman and God,” Bevin said.

Conway has said it would have been a waste of taxpayer resources to defend an unconstitutional law — and that statutes allow the attorney general to decide what cases to defend.

He told Time magazine last year that the ban was discriminatory and that he feared he’d regret defending it the rest of his life. “I know where history is going on this,” he said. “I know what was in my heart.”

The majority’s disagreement with the court’s opinion was hardly surprising. It mirrored the results of a Bluegrass Poll in March when 57 percent of registered voters said they opposed gay marriage.

The most recent poll, conducted July 22-28, found that 38 percent of voters agreed with the court’s decision, slightly more than the 33 percent who said in the March poll that they supported gay marriage.

Joann Atcher, 80, of Lexington, who agreed with the decision, said in a follow-up interview that she thinks it is “only fair” that gays and lesbians be allowed to marry, while Judy Hater, 66 of Melbourne, in Northern Kentucky, said she thinks the court got it wrong.

“They can go on a date and say they are husband and husband or wife and wife, but that is not a marriage,” she said.

Voters were divided on clerks who have refused to issue marriage licenses to anyone so they can avoid issuing them to same sex-couples.

Mat Staver, director of Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel, which is defending Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in a suit filed by gay and straight couples to whom she denied licenses, said he is pleased that most voters — 52 percent, counting the ones who believe the state should take over the job — said clerks should not be forced to violate their religious convictions.

Hater, a school bus monitor, likened forcing clerks to issue marriages despite their religious objections to forcing a practicing Catholic to perform an abortion.

“Clerks have been doing this for years, and all the sudden the game changes, she said.

But Donald Tomlinson, 60, of Wilmore, said that now that the Supreme Court has said gay marriage is legal, clerks have no right to fail to comply.

“It is their job,” he said.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189