Monmouth University released poll results today that show narrow support in New Jersey for same-sex marriage, though support remained under a 50 percent threshold. (The poll results arrived in an e-mail after our editorial and podcast were live on our site.)
The poll — which Patrick Murray, founding director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, links to in his blog — found that 48 percent of New Jerseyans backed same-sex marriage while 43 percent opposed, with support inching up when only registered voters are included.
Currently, New Jersey residents who favor allowing same-sex marriage outnumber those who oppose it by a 48% to 43% margin. Opinion among registered voters is slightly more supportive of same-sex marriage – 50% of voters favor it to 40% who are opposed.
Opinion on this issue breaks down along party lines: most Democrats support same-sex marriage (58% favor to 35% oppose), most Republicans are against it (37% favor to 54% oppose), and independents are split (46% favor to 43% oppose).
New Jersey polls conducted by Eagleton-Rutgers both before and after the state’s civil union law went into effect found similar levels of overall support among the general public – 50% to 44% in June 2006 and 48% to 45% in October 2007. However, all these polls mark a significant change from September 2003, when only 43% favored allowing same-sex marriage compared to 50% who opposed it. Prior polls have also shown strong (65%) support for the state’s current civil union laws.
Particularly interesting, given the results of November’s referendum in California, is that half of the respondents
oppose amending the state’s constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a women. Another 41% favor a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Among registered voters, 52% oppose such an amendment while only 38% support it.
This marks a decrease in support for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage from October 2007 when more residents supported (47%) than opposed (44%) it. It is a return to June 2006 levels when just 40% were in favor and 52% were opposed.
So, there has been movement in the right direction, even if it has not been at the pace same-sex-marriage supporters would like. That doesn’t mean supporters shouldn’t press the issue. Remember, there was little public or political momentum for civil rights before the Montgomery boycott and the civil rights movement forced the nation to deal with the injustice of Jim Crow and the lingering legacy of slavery.
Hank Kalet 