News

A story in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle offers a bemused overview of the candidates running for the newly redrawn second congressional district, which writer Joe Garofoli describes as "a political world like no other ... where all but the two Republican candidates are running to the left of President Obama."

Garofoli brings up the poor voting record of entrepreneurial candidate Stacey Lawson, comparing her to "another wealthy neophyte business executive candidate," Republican Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who ran for governor two years ago. Lawson voted only four times in 12 elections between October 2003 and November 2008, Garofoli reports.

Also of note: Garofoli says Republican candidate Dan Roberts supports same-sex marriage. That's not quite the impression we got from our interview with him last month, during which Roberts said he "probably" voted for Prop. 8, the 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment that took away the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The exchange, which was left out of the Journal story due to space constraints, went as follows:

North Coast Journal: What's your position on same-sex marriage?

Dan Roberts: I'm for freedom, so there's a little Ron Paul in me. I'm for personal choice on those issues. But I'll understand this: There is a constitutional amendment passed by the voters in California that prohibits gay marriage. I respect the voice of the people. I would not support [overturning Prop 8].

NCJ: Did you vote for Prop. 8?

DR: I probably voted for it. I don't remember specifically, but I probably did, yeah. I'll take a Ron Paul line: You take the government out of marriage. These are unintended consequences to social engineering.