COUNCIL BLUFFS - Republican candidate for governor Rod Roberts said if elected, he would use all of his authority to ensure that Iowa residents get to vote on gay marriage.
Roberts said Friday he would not sign the state budget if lawmakers declined to authorize a vote on a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.
Before people could vote on such an amendment, the Legislature would have to approve it in two different assemblies. The earliest the measure could go before voters is 2014.
“It's clear people want to weigh in on that discussion, and they should,” Roberts said.
Today marks the first anniversary of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage.
Roberts said he is a proponent of traditional marriage between one man and one woman.
“I always believed that was the definition of marriage,” he told a gathering of about 30 people at Jonesy's Taco House.
The Legislature, which concluded its 2010 session last week, accomplished little except spending a lot of money, said Roberts, a state representative from Carroll.
“There was nothing done to create jobs in the private sector,” he said. “We just increased the burden on taxpayers.”
It's time to make Iowa a more business-friendly locale, he said. “Business is the catalyst for job creation.”
Roberts is challenging former Gov. Terry Branstad and Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats for the GOP nomination.
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