BACKROOM BRIEFING: SCOTT KEEPS DISTANCE FROM GAY MARRIAGE FIGHT

By DARA KAM AND BRANDON LARRABEE
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, September 4, 2014……….With the November election just around the corner, Gov. Rick Scott is playing it safe regarding one of the country’s thorniest political issues — gay marriage.

Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a much-anticipated notice Thursday that the state will appeal a federal judge’s ruling last month that overturned Florida’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. But in the lead-up to Bondi’s move, Scott sidestepped questions about whether the state should appeal.

“This is a constitutional matter and it is the responsibility of the attorney general to handle cases involving Florida’s Constitution,” Scott spokesman John Tupps said in an e-mail before Bondi’s filing.

Tupps’s statement echoed what Scott told reporters this week while on the campaign trail.

But it isn’t that simple.

As part of U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s Aug. 21 ruling, Scott and Bondi were removed as individual defendants in the case, which is a consolidation of two separate federal lawsuits and involves gay couples married in other states. The lawsuits include challenges to gay couples’ inability in Florida to get pension benefits or health insurance for spouses.

Hinkle left standing as defendants, however, two Scott appointees — the secretaries of the Department of Management Services and the Department of Health. Because they answer to the governor, Hinkle wrote that it was “redundant” for Scott to remain a defendant but left the door open for the governor to be added later.

“Rick Scott has been throwing Pam Bondi under the bus for a long time on this issue. He is continuing to hide behind the attorney general but he can’t hide any more,” said Daniel Tilley, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida representing SAVE Foundation, a Miami-based non-profit whose members include couples involved in the case.

Tilley added: “The fact is he is in effect the client and the client decides how the litigation proceeds. It’s bizarre to suggest as the client that he has no say in this matter. He has all of the say.”

The issue of gay marriage poses an election-year challenge for Scott, who has the support of Florida Family Policy Council President John Stemberger, a lawyer responsible for getting the “Florida Marriage Protection Act” onto the ballot in 2008 and helping get it passed.

Stemberger said Scott has been “solid and consistent” in his opposition to gay marriage.

The governor, who has been saddled by low approval numbers, may not want to alienate Christian conservatives like Stemberger, especially in what is expected to be a tight race against Democratic challenger Charlie Crist.

Crist is unabashedly seeking the support of gay activists, however. The former Republican apologized to the gay community last year for previously throwing his support behind the constitutional ban on gay marriage.

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