Romney Sets Himself Apart in Opposition To Gay Marriage

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney drew some mild boos and hisses over his stand against gay marriage. From the students' section of his event at Luther College in Decorah, that wasn't so surprising. Romney faced a more pointed confrontation on the same topic during a question-and-answer session at the University of Denver last month. But it was noteworthy how Romney didn't feel like sharing the boos and hisses with a Republican rival who's starting to nip at his heels. Asked a generic question about the gay marriage issue, Romney went out of his way to say he was the only leading national candidate to support the federal constitutional amendment. That's true, but only if Romney ignores former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who runs second or third to Romney in the Iowa polls and slipped past him - just barely - in one national survey released last week. So, without speaking that other man's name, Romney tried to clear the battlefield in one of the Republican presidential race's contests within the contest: the fight for votes of social conservatives. "For those who are not familiar with it, of the four nationally leading candidates for president - and I count myself as one of those, but also Mayor (Rudy) Giuliani, and Sen. (John) McCain and (former Sen.) Fred Thompson - there's only one of us who's in favor of a federal amendment to the constitution to limit marriage to the relationship between a man and a woman," Romney said. "And that's me."Huckabee also supports the constitutional amendment, which has stalled in Congress since it was first advanced by two Colorado Republicans: Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Sen. Wayne Allard, a Romney supporter. Despite Huckabee's recent surge in some polls, he still doesn't crack the top four when various national surveys are averaged together. Still, Huckabee's campaign considers it disingenuous for Romney to say he's the "only" top candidate who supports the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. "If he's defining who the top four are and tailoring his remarks to fit that situation, sure," said Huckabee spokesman Eric Woolson. "I think he's doing what he's very good at, and that's parsing his answers to suit the audience." While Romney got a cool reception from the students section for his marriage answer, he drew simultaneous applause from the part of the crowd he charitably called the "over-40" section. "I feel very strongly about this because, as I said earlier, I believe that maintaining the strength of the marriage relationship, the family relationship, is critical to the strength of an entire society," Romney said. The marriage issue has slipped from the national headlines since the Massachusetts Supreme Court first legalized same-sex marriages - just in time for it to become a hot-button issue in the 2004 presidential contest. Still, it's a key issue for religious conservatives - particularly evangelical Christians - and that's a key GOP constituency being sought by Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Huckabee, a Baptist minister. Both men recently claimed victories at the Family Research Council's "Values Voters" summit straw poll, where Huckabee won more than 50 percent in the in-person vote but Romney eked out a narrow win when online votes were included. Neglecting to mention Huckabee on Thursday was "not intentional," Romney spokesman Tim Albrecht said. "I think that conventional wisdom states there are four leading candidates in this race," he said, meaning Giuliani, Thompson, McCain and Romney. "Poll after poll after poll has shown that."