Mitt Romney Slams Family Leader Marriage Pledge

Mitt Romney is distancing himself from the Family Leader Marriage Pledge quite emphatically:

Mitt Romney is further distancing himself from the GOP’s religious right base in Iowa, by refusing to sign a social conservative group’s controversial “Marriage Vow” pledge — with his campaign going the extra mile by excoriating the pledge itself.

(…)

As the Associated Press reports, Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul bluntly declared that the pledge “contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.”

Furthermore, the Des Moines Register reports that a top Romney backer in Iowa is further speaking out against the pledge. “One of the reasons I support Governor Romney is his support for traditional marriage,” said state Rep. Renee Schulte. “However, I am glad he won’t sign this ill-advised pledge.” Schulte also added: “The Family Leader would do more to advance the issues that conservatives like Mitt and I support if they kept it simple.”

Tim Pawlenty is also declining to sign the pledge, although his language is far more muted than what the Romney camp is putting out. Newt Gingrich is also declining the sign the pledge but says he wants to work with the group on refining the language of the pledge. Perhaps Newt wants to persuade them to rethink that part about pledging personal marital fidelity, just in case.

 

 

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. legion says:

    I’ve actually been wondering about MItt’s position on this stuff… If he takes a strong position on something defining marriage as “one man-one woman”, it kinda opens him up to rather intense questioning about things like Kody Brown’s lawsuit about the Constitutionality of Polygamy…

  2. Trumwill says:

    it kinda opens him up to rather intense questioning about things like Kody Brown’s lawsuit about the Constitutionality of Polygamy…

    Not really, I don’t think. The LDS Church is emphatically opposed to polygamy. Some people think it’s a nudge-wink thing, but it’s really not. If he were so inclined, coming out as strongly as he can in favor of one-man-one-woman marriage would not only help him with the base, but clarify that he is not a nudge-winker.