Gay marriage amendment passes committee
The legion of minions that work for Dome say that Speaker Hackney will use his powers to kill the bill.
Update: And so it is done. Hackney has just referred the bill to Judiciary I, where it will in all likelihood die.
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The House Rules Committee passed the bill that would add the state's ban on gay marriage to the constitution. It is now heading to the House floor, at least in theory.
More on the politics and maneuvering in a couple minutes.
It was clear that the House Democratic leadership did not want to move this thing.
Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, moved that the bill be moved over the Judiciary I Committee, which would have killed it in advance of the crossover deadline on Thursday.
That vote failed on a 14-10 (or 13-11, depending on whose count you believe) vote.
Rep. Bill Owens, the committee chairman, then took a break to figure out what the honorables would do. For a while, Republicans were feared Ownes might go out and recruit a few absent members of the committee to come in and change the vote.
Instead, the committee voted to send it to the floor without prejudice. Translation: We'll pass it on but we're not happy about it. That passed on a voice vote, but no one voted "no."
There are a still a few ways this thing could be derailed. For one, Speaker Hackney could take it on himself to re-assign the bill to a different committee. Of course, he'd have to be willing to stand up to a firestorm of critics who say he's wielding to the heavy hand of power to protect his members from a controversial vote.
But for the moment, we're on for a debate and vote this week. It would need 72 votes (a three-fifths majority) to pass the House and move to the Senate.