More than three-quarters of Republican
voters say they support repeal of gay marriage in Iowa.
According to the latest Des Moines
Register Iowa Poll released Saturday, 77% of Iowans planning to vote
in Tuesday's Republican primary say Iowans should be allowed to vote
on the definition of marriage.
But only fifty percent of respondents
say the seven Supreme Court justices who voted unanimously in 2009 in
favor of gay marriage should be ousted from office.
The poll comes on the heels of a second
survey that found a majority of Iowans support the decision.
The first poll, which was released late
Thursday by local CBS affiliate KCCI in Des Moines, found that 53
percent of respondent say they favor marriage rights for gay and
lesbian couples, while 41% are opposed.
Social conservatives have mounted a
highly divisive effort to overturn the ruling by defining marriage as
a heterosexual union in the Iowa Constitution.
That effort has been blocked by
Democrats in the Legislature, which must approve the constitutional
amendment before sending it to voters.
The polls might be a harbinger of
things to come on primary night. While they show that GOP voters
remain opposed to marriage equality, they don't believe it's the most
important issue facing Iowans. And radical notions such as
retaliating against judges appear to be losing steam.
The state's most vocal critic of gay
marriage sees the Republican primary as a referendum on the issue.
The Iowa Family Policy Center's pick for governor is businessman Bob
Vander Plaats, who has pledged, if elected, to halt gay weddings in
the state with an executive order until the issue is decided by
voters. Vander Plaats' closest rival, moderate Republican Terry
Branstad, has said he disagrees with the ruling, but also supports
limited gay rights. The conservative group has said it could not
support Branstad should he win the nomination.
Branstad holds a 15-point lead over
Vander Plaats.