The chairman of the Maryland Republican
Party is targeting Democrats in an effort to kill a gay marriage
bill.
On Saturday, Alex X. Mooney, a former
state senator, emailed an “action alert” to party members urging
action against nine Democrats in the Senate, the Washington Post
reported.
“Our state's long standing tradition
of promoting marriage as between one man and one woman will be
drastically altered to legally define marriage as between two men or
two women,” Mooney wrote in he email.
“There is still time to put pressure
on your state senator, but we must act now. It is urgent that you
contact your state senator immediately to tell them to vote no on the
assault on traditional marriage.”
The alert gives the false impression
that there is no Republican support for the measure.
In fact, Senator Allan H. Kittleman, a
Republican from Howard, has pledged his support for the bill. A
spokesperson for the GOP Senate caucus has only said that a majority
of members do not support gay marriage.
A key Senate committee on Thursday
approved the measure and sent it along to the full Senate, which is
expected to act on the bill as early as next week.