The slippage of support for the anti-marriage equality amendment in Minnesota is good news. But not the biggest Minnesota polling news, which was strangely missed on the Orange to Blue Roundup.
Marriage equality will solve itself, regardless of this vote. Whether it's a future vote after a bit more time, or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, marriage equality is inexorably coming to Minnesota, and likely sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately, the focus on marriage equality has distracted many Minnesotans and many Democrats and Liberals from the far more dangerous amendment that is garnering more support in Minnesota, and will probably be far tougher to undo if we let the damage get done - Voter I.D.
While I support marriage equality, I'm spending my time and money trying to fight back voter I.D. If we lose that one, it carries far more collateral damage, for a lot longer, than a temporary setback on marriage equality.
I'm was pleased to see PPP has us within striking distance on Voter I.D.
-Things are starting to get interesting with Minnesota's voter ID amendment. When we polled on it in June it was leading for passage by a 58/34 margin. By September that had tightened to a 56/39 advantage. And now it's leading only 51/43. Democrats are now even more opposed to the voter ID amendment (23/71) than they are to the one on marriage. And although independents continue to support it their 52/41 favor for it is down a good deal from 62/33 a month ago. This fight may end up a lot closer than people initially expected.
-emphasis added
Democrats seem to have figured out that this is truly life and death for Democrats in close elections. If this had been in place four years ago, we would have Senator Coleman right now, not Senator Franken. We probably would also have Governor Emmer, not Gov. Dayton. If we had Emmer, plus our current bunch of Republican legislators, what's happened in Wisconsin would look like kindergarten compared to what they would have done in Minnesota.
We are down by only two or three - voters don't need to vote against the amendment, they just need to not vote for it - a blank ballot on the issue counts as a no. Just a little few adds, a few more calls, or a few more door knocks can make the difference. People are persuadable on this one. Experience has shown that independents can be convinced, especially on the issues of the unfunded mandate on counties raising their property taxes, the idea that they will have to pay for a new free I.D. that will be provided to the "poors" and the brown people every time they move, and the lack of protection for the voting rights of overseas soldiers.
This is one we can win. Ironically, we will probably have marriage equality in Minnesota sooner if we lose on the marriage equality amendment and win this one than vice versa.