Trying to make social issues the sole focus of this election is out of line with what voters want and expect from candidates. In fact, the most recent New York Times poll shows that a majority of voters favor some form of relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples. The report found that 58% of respondents favored marriage or civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, while only 38% oppose any recognition for these couples.
In a poll conducted by The New York Times:
page 16, question 74:
Which comes closest to your view? Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry OR gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry OR there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship?
Marry: 22%
Civil unions: 36%
No legal recognition: 38%
DK/NA: 3%
Link to poll:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/07/us/politics/20111207_poll_docs.html?ref=politics
Your headline says Iowa voters, but your post makes it sound like the poll was conducted nationally. I was confused at first.
Also, you didn’t mention that those results were from voters who expect to vote Republican, which makes the results all the more surprising. I thought at first that the numbers included liberals and Democrats, which would push the pro-marriage numbers up. But to see that 22% of Iowa *Republican* voters support same-sex marriage… that’s something!