Next year, when I’m considering the “important” races like the United States Senate, Governor, Attorney General, my Representative in Congress, even state Senator, I’m going to stop for a minute to think about who is running for that most local of state legislative offices, the state House.
Today, Vermont became the first state in the nation to vote for full marriage equality without having an order from the state’s supreme court to do so. More so, the move was taken in an override of the governor’s veto of the marriage equality bill.
The override was successful. By one vote.
With a vote in the House of 100 in favor of the override and 49 opposed to the override, even one vote different would have meant that the House would not have reached the two-thirds vote necessary to override the veto — and Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto would have stood.
Marriage equality would have been stopped in its tracks. By one vote.
With a House of 150 members and a population of approximately 623,908, each member of the House represents approximately 4,160 people. That’s much closer to the people than many state Houses, but — in any state — the state House races are the closest-to-home of legislative races and their ability to get lost in the shuffle of more “exciting” races is understandable.
On days like this, however, I stop and realize that each elected official, on any given legislative day, can be the official whose vote advances or rebuts my interests. I will remember that during candidate recruitment, town halls, fund-raising efforts, the primaries and the general election. Every question matters because every candidate matters.
One vote made full marriage equality a reality today in Vermont.
One vote matters.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Chris Geidner is the senior political writer at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
Just like they jumped on the unanimous Iowa decision to say courts deciding such things are illegitimate, no doubt the right wing will be jumping on this to scream that it’s illegitimate for one person’s vote to decide such an issue.
Or 100.
Of course claiming that it’s illegitimate for one person’s vote to decide such an issue would not be in their favor, since there were 100 votes FOR this measure, and really only one significant vote against (that of the Governor). So if it’s illegitimate for one person to decide the issue, the Governor’s decision would have been the illegitimate one.