Brody's Notes... Baltimore State Delegate Delays Key Vote On Passage Of Gay Marriage Bill

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland)  MAR 1 | A Baltimore Democrat has blocked a critical vote on the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which was approved last week by the State Senate, in the Maryland House of Delegate's Judiciary committee late this afternoon, which means that the measure will not head to the main 141 member House as quickly as previously expected.

Julie Bykowicz, the Statehouse political reporter for the Baltimore Sun newspaper reported in that paper's Maryland Politics blogsite:

Delegate Jill Carter, (D-Baltimore) said she is reluctant to vote on legislation that would legalize marriage for same-sex couples until other issues, including a child custody bill and education funding, gain traction in the General Assembly this year.
Carter was one of two delegates supportive of gay marriage who staged a walkout this morning during a specially scheduled vote on the marriage proposal -- which has already cleared the Senate and had been expected to make it out of the House committee today.
But Carter said there are "more important, or at least equally important" issues that she would like to see fast-tracked in the way that, in her view, gay marriage has been. And she said that until she hears from House leadership, she does not plan to cast a committee vote in favor of the Civil Marriage Protection Act.
She is a critical vote: The House Judiciary Committee contains only exactly enough "yes" votes to get the same-sex marriage proposal out of committee and to the House floor for debate by the entire 141-member chamber.

LGBT activists were outraged, one person speaking on the grounds of anonymity said:

I am absolutely pissed about her actions on this bill. It is 100% bull**** to hold thousands of gay families hostage to her own personal political agenda.

Last week the bill passed the Senate in a close vote of 25-21, but passage in the House of Delegates is at risk. The measure's key sponsors said they believe they are at least 8 votes shy of the 71 needed for passage.
During the interview with the Sun's Bykowicz  Delegate Carter also said:

That while she believes in the civil rights of gay couples who want to marry, she wants to "send a message to leadership" that there are other critical issues, too.

"It's important, but there's other very important things," she said.

Carter said there's no need to "fast-track" gay marriage since the 90-day session is only about half over and lawmakers are in their first year of a four-year term.
She said she is "absolutely" willing to take a hit for withdrawing her support on gay marriage if it makes a larger point about her favored issues.

"I'm trying to leverage the vote to get something for my constituents," she said.