Voters in California, Arizona and Florida are being asked to amend their state constitution to forbid gay marriage on November 4th. With less than two weeks to the election, presidential campaigns are breaking their long silence on the issue.

Both campaigns dispatched their vice presidential hopefuls to discuss gay marriage during television interviews this week.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spoke against gay marriage in an interview broadcast on Tuesday's edition of The 700 Club, where she was asked by David Brody: “On constitutional marriage amendment, are ... are you for something like that?”

“I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that's where we would go. I don't support gay marriage,” Palin answered.

The Associated Press reported Palin's position to be at odds with Senator John McCain, who voted against a proposed Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006, and her own previously stated position on such issues.

In voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment, McCain said he was a “federalist” and believed states should decide social issues like gay marriage and abortion rights. Palin has agreed with that position, saying she's also a “federalist.”

But a Newsweek story titled Making Plans for Palin suggested the Governor is breaking ranks with McCain in an effort to bolster her chances for a 2012 presidential run. The story highlights five recent statements Palin has made that are either critical of or at odds with McCain – criticizing the campaign's pull out of Michigan, disagreeing with McCain's decision to understate an Obama-Rev. Wright connection, breaking with her boss on the issue of delisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terror, deviating on the campaign's use of negative robocalls, and the gay marriage issue.

In contrast, Senator Joe Biden appeared Monday on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he told chat show host Ellen DeGeneres that California's proposed gay marriage ban is “regressive” and that he would vote against it.

“If I lived in California, I'd totally vote against Prop. 8,” the Delaware Senator said. “And, by the way, Barack and I opposed a similar attempt nationally. There was an attempt to talk about a constitutional amendment which I think is regressive, I think it's unfair. So, I vote no.”

All four nominees, however, oppose gay marriage. Obama and Biden have each stated their preference for civil unions over marriage for gay couples, but do not believe in gay marriage bans. McCain does not support any form of recognition of gay unions, but believes individual states should decide the issue. And Palin believes a federal constitutional amendment that forbids gay marriage is necessary.

To a lesser extent, gay marriage is also on the ballot in Connecticut, where a measure seeks to force a constitutional convention to discuss the issue.

In California, where $45 million is being spent to decided the issue, voters are being asked for the first time to take away marriage rights granted to gay couples in May when the California Supreme Court overruled a 2000 voter-approved gay marriage ban.