Governor Scott Walker got some help from Hollywood during a state tourism news conference today when he was asked to clarify his position on gay marriage.
During an interview on meet the press over the weekend Governor Walker told NBC host David Gregory it might be better to leave the issue of marriage in the hands of churches and synagogues and keep government out of the process. But at the state tourism conference in Madison, he reiterated his commitment to the state ban on same-sex marriage.
“In this state, as you know, it’s not just the law – it’s into the constitution. It’s defined as one man versus one woman and I’m not proposing to make any changes to that.”
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As the governor finished answering the question filmmaker David Zucker broke in to try to shift the discussion back to state tourism: “These questions are distracting from the governor’s effort to promote gay tourism. Can you speak to that Governor?”
Zucker was at the tourism conference to help promote a new state tourism TV ad he helped produce with actor Robert Hayes, who starred in Zucker’s classic comedy film Airplane. Governor Walker used the comic relief Zucker provided to reframe his position on gay marriage by suggesting that while a growing number of young voters may approve of gay marriage, it is not a top priority for them politically.
“Talking about tourism, talking about helping manufacturers, talking about helping agriculture: Those are the things that people elected me to do, and not be consumed with some of these other issues which sometimes, some in some parts of politics talk about.”
The latest ABC news Washington Post poll found 58 percent of Americans support legalizing same sex marriage.
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