The Speaker of the Missouri House has been quick to react to the State Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling. House Speaker Catherine Hanaway of Warson Woods says she still doesn’t know why Governor Bob Holden and other Democrats felt compelled to exhaust all legal avenues to force the issue onto the August ballot – even though the deadline had passed. As for the language of the ruling, which states the Secretary of State cannot exercise the duties of his office in a manner to frustrate the Governor’s constitutional authority to select the election date, she insists Matt Blunt never did that. She says he was waiting for the Legislature to send him the bill. Governor Holden and his fellow Democrats won this confrontation, but Hanaway doesn’t think it was Republicans who lost. She say the losers are the Missourians who will be ready to vote in November’s general election, but won’t in August. Hanaway rejects suggestions Blunt and other Republicans were playing politics, saying they were following the rules as prescribed by state law.
