NJ organization attacks gay marriage

Billboard attacks gay marriage vote
Saturday, October 06, 2007
By DAN RING
dring@repub.com


BOSTON - A New Jersey group yesterday unveiled a massive billboard in Springfield that compares a local legislator to Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold for switching his vote on gay marriage.

Called "Betrayed," the billboard, posted on Interstate 91 near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, targets state Rep. Angelo J. Puppolo Jr., a freshman Democrat from Springfield.

Puppolo changed his position on gay marriage and voted "no" to placing a question on next year's statewide ballot that sought to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex unions, legal in Massachusetts since May 2004. During the campaign last year, Puppolo said he would support the ballot question.

"Tactics like this reinforce my belief that I did the right thing," Puppolo said. "I voted to keep discrimination off the ballot and out of the Massachusetts constitution."

Puppolo said the billboard is hateful and offensive.

Brian S. Brown, director of the newly created National Organization for Marriage, of Princeton, N.J., which financed the billboard, said yesterday Puppolo betrayed marriage and the public trust.

The billboard is an effort to highlight Puppolo's vote and educate the public, said Brown, former executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut.

"If Angelo Puppolo is whining about this being hateful, that's over the top," Brown said. "Come on. He's a big boy. He's a legislator."

During a June 14 joint session of the state Legislature, the proposed question fell five votes short of the 50 it needed to appear on the ballot.

Brown said his group will post billboards or take other measures against 10 other state legislators who changed their votes or stated positions - including Sen. Gale D. Candaras, D-Wilbraham - and opposed the proposed amendment on June 14. The group launched a Web site to announce a billboard campaign across Massachusetts.

Brown called Puppolo one of the most "egregious examples" of a legislator who changed his mind on gay marriage. He wouldn't comment on the billboard's cost or how long it will stay up.

Puppolo, 38, said the billboard goes too far.

"It's unfortunate that small-minded groups like this from out of the area come in and spread this kind of hate and inflammatory statements," he said.

The billboard underscores his belief the ballot question would have sparked a divisive, nasty advertising campaign next year, he said.

Puppolo, a Catholic who is married with two small children, said he attends Mass each week.

"To bring Judas into the equation really shows how desperate this group is," he said.

Melissa A. Threadgill, a spokeswoman for MassEquality, a group that opposed the proposed ballot question, said Puppolo did the right thing with his vote in June.

"I don't think people in his district will respond favorably to tactics like this," she said of the New Jersey group's intervention.