Marriage Equality and Convention Equality

Marriage Equality, Convention Equality

There is a press conf. and gathering to celebrate one year of Iowa marriage equality. (Miss Etiquette says that's the paper anniversary) 10 AM at the Johnson County Administration Building, hosted by One Iowa.

Todd Dorman passes along some stats:

1,783 — Number of same-gender licenses issued by Iowa counties
17,600 — Total marriage licenses issued.
901 — License issue where no gender was specified.
14,916 — Opposite-gender licenses issued.

That's in the ballpark of the 10 percent one would anticipate based just on percentage of the population. Maybe a few more because of out of state tourism (no stats listed on that) and because of the pent-up demand of lifelong partners finally being able to make it official in the eyes of the state.

In a major disappointment, the People's Republic is only tied for second in the number of same sex licenses with 208. We're tied with border county Scott and behind Polk (410). 82 counties have married zero same sex couples.

Meanwhile, on the same fromt, Iowa's News Liter is snarkily concerned that the scheduled appearance of Boys Like Girls may be a problem in the post-Varnum v. Brien era. I think if they bill themselves as Boys Like Girls But Not That Way we're OK.

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After a spirited competition state Republicans have chosen to have their convention in, big shocker, Des Moines. desmoinesdem thinks this was nothing against Sioux City, but a practical move:

With four Republicans running for Congress in Iowa's second district and seven running in Iowa's third district, there is a good chance that no candidate will win 35 percent of the vote in the June 8 primary. In that case, the Republican nominees in IA-02 and/or IA-03 would be selected by a district convention, which would probably convene during the GOP state convention in late June. Republican commentators had already expressed concern that turnout from central and eastern Iowa would suffer if delegates were asked to drive four to seven hours each way to the convention location.

This reminds me of some things I've always wondered about. Republicans meet twice at the congressional district level, and call their meeting IN the district both a "caucus" and a "convention." The district them meets again at the state convention, and calls that a "convention.

But the one that always gets me is they call their number two person a "co-chair," where we Dems call ours a "vice-chair." To me "co" implies equality, so I guess I'm in need of enlightenment.