Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Mitch Perry Report: Domestic partner registry stalls in Tallahassee committee
Posted by Mitch Perry on Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:11 AM
In what appeared to be only a slightly different re-enactment of what went down in Hillsborough County last month, a proposal to create a statewide domestic partnership law by Hollywood Democratic state Senator Eleanor Sobel was pulled yesterday, after she learned that it did not have the votes to get through the Children Families and Elder Affairs Committee.
Some of the same arguments made on Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa were reprised, though instead of Terry Kemple and David Caton, we had John Stemberger and Bill Bunkley. We didn't see the entire debate aired on the Florida Channel, but did not that Sarasota County area Senator Nancy Detert was strongly in support of such legislation, but had specific problems with Sobel's bill, prompting her to "TP" it, or temporarily postpone until later this spring.
As in Hillsborough County, there were some lawmakers who rejected on religious grounds. Thad Altman was one such legislator who made comments. Democrat Jeff Clemens, who supported Sobel's bill, said that 10 years from now history will look favorably on some legislators and not so much on others regarding their stance on this issue.
Just one week after he announced his candidacy, a new poll shows Rick Kriseman within striking distance of incumbent Bill Foster in the race for mayor of St. Petersburg.
Following the huge crowd in D.C. on Sunday against the XL Keystone Pipeline and for combating climate change, about three dozen student activists gathered on the USF campus to keep up public interest on those issues.
And on Monday night on the University of Tampa campus, an estimated 500 people (mostly UT students) jammed into the Vaughn Center in Plant Hall to watch a highly informed debate regarding the future of Marijuana in America.
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