ALBANY, September 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - David Weprin, a Democrat in the New York State Assembly who supported New York’s recent gay “marriage” law, has lost a bid for a U.S. congressional seat, giving the seat to a Republican for the first time in 88 years. Both traditional marriage supporters and local sources say that the marriage vote was critical to Weprin’s downfall in the heavily Orthodox Jewish district, despite himself being an Orthodox Jew.
The special election on Tuesday was held to replace former Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, representing New York’s 9th District, following his resignation in June over a sex scandal.
Newcomer Bob Turner, a Catholic who ran on a pro-life and pro-family platform, won this week's special election for NY-9.
Retired media executive Bob Turner, a Republican and a Catholic, won what the New York Times called “a decisive victory” on a pro-life and pro-family platform - an outcome few might have expected for a solid blue Congressional seat. Turner defeated Weprin 54-46 percent.
“If you’d looked up the word ‘underdog’ before yesterday’s election, you might have seen a picture of NY-9 candidate Bob Turner,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in an email to supporters Wednesday. “By all appearances, a pro-life, pro-family, Catholic Republican didn’t stand a chance in one of the state’s longest Democratic dynasties.”
For social conservatives, the reason for the shift was apparent.
Citing the results of a poll by QEV analytics, the National Organization for Marriage noted that, among voters who participated in Tuesday’s election, 44 percent of traditional marriage supporters said Weprin’s marriage position affected their vote, while 29 percent of gay “marriage” supporters said the same.
Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, voted in favor of same-sex “marriage” in June. The QEV poll found Orthodox voters in the heavily Jewish district opting for Turner 91-9 percent; 72 percent of the same group said marriage was a deciding factor.
When defending his vote this summer, Weprin had stated, “My religion is very important to me personally, but this is not a religious issue. I think everyone here would agree that we should not be outlawing marriages between Jews and non-Jews or interracial marriages.”
City Hall News notes that, according to insiders on both sides of the aisle, Weprin’s comments had kicked a beehive within the Orthodox Jewish community and proved a major factor in his downfall.
“Legislators were sold a bill of goods when they were told by Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that they could redefine marriage and suffer no political consequences,” said NOM president Brian Brown in a press release Wednesday.
“All you have to do is look at David Weprin’s shocking loss to Bob Turner to understand that voting for same-sex marriage has consequences.”
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