Minnesota's Senate majority leader promises a committee will debate gay marriages, but on Tuesday he said he doubted it would pass if it reaches the full Senate.
Sen. Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said Republicans want the issue on November's general election ballot only because it would draw GOP voters to the polls.
Not so, countered Deputy Minority Leader Tom Neuville: The public wants to vote on whether gay marriages should be allowed.
"It is a grassroots-up strategy," the Northfield Republican said.
The exchange came Tuesday during an Associated Press legislative session preview with legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
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The proposal pushed by Republicans would amend the state Constitution to define a marriage as between one man and one woman. However, Johnson said, state law already does that.
If lawmakers approve the amendment, voters would make the final decision in the Nov. 7 election.
However, chances of the Senate passing the amendment fell in recent months. Special elections sent two more amendment opponents to the Senate, where efforts have failed to allow all senators to vote on the issue.
Neuville said Democrats, who hold a majority in the Senate, have killed the amendment with procedural votes in the past, and he asked that senators be allowed to vote directly on the proposal.
The House has passed the amendment three years in a row.
House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, reversed an earlier comment that he wanted the House to vote on it again this year to put pressure on the Senate. On Tuesday, he said that he now leans against taking another House vote.
Johnson blamed Republicans for targeting him personally on the gay marriage issue, although he said that as a minister he never would marry a gay couple.
"The governor of this state and the speaker of the House have their cannons set on Willmar, Minn.," he said about his home.
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Referring to a tense scene two years ago in which armed police escorted him out of the Capitol past gay marriage opponents, Johnson said: "I do not wish to have this state Capitol become downtown Baghdad on the gay marriage issue."
