Hector Balderas, who is running for the
U.S. Senate from New Mexico, supports gay marriage, the New Mexico
Independent reported.
When asked by KNME's Gwyneth Doland his
position on the issue, Balderas, New Mexico's current state auditor,
replied, “absolutely.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “But more
importantly than that, I've been advocating for civil rights for
almost all my life. I'm an attorney, I was a prosecutor that fought
hard for victims' rights. So, any type of discrimination in this
country really needs to be addressed swiftly.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Balderas' opponent in the Democratic
primary is Congressman Martin Heinrich.
Heinrich favors repeal of the Defense
of Marriage Act (DOMA), which forbids federal agencies from
recognizing the legal marriages of gay couples, but does not support
marriage rights for gay couples.
“I am not supportive of gay
marriage,” Heinrich said in 2008, “but I do believe that
everybody in the United States has the same civil rights in front of
the government.”
“So I think it's important that civil
rights that are available to heterosexual couples should be available
to every single gay couple who also wants to make the same sort of
commitments.”
That is, Heinrich supports civil unions
for gay couples.
Heinrich and Balderas are vying for the
Senate seat of Jeff Bingaman, who is not seeking reelection.
Bingaman voted in favor of DOMA in
1996, but he recently co-sponsored a bill that seeks to repeal the
law.