more than ten years, or it s been ten years, nine, whatever, it s close to ten years in massachusetts, i can t count, i don t know. but basically a decade in massachusetts and i think everybody will agree, massachusetts is still massachusetts. the sky didn t fall. and i think that s the key lesson here. the sky didn t fall. and every single state, where we ve had marriage, the argument was, oh, my god, all marriages are going to fall apart, kids are going to be in these, like, unsafe environments. they re going to hear these messages that we don t want them to hear. and the reality is, none of it has happened. in fact, marriage as an institution has actually safeguarded more families. it s actually created stronger family units economically, emotionally, and otherwise. and the business community wise. in illinois, you don t have, that serves as a detriment to people bringing business to illinois. that s an argument that has nothing to do with some of the other more emotional r aal
atkinson of nevada, who came out last month on the floor of the state senate, and rachael staszenberger. and if anybody recognizes that last name, the granddaughter of a luminary, harold staszen. rachael, you ve been covering this, it is amazing, it s a two-area story that started in may of 2011 with republicans in the state legislature there, kind of looking at what the republican national playbook was last decade, which was put these anti-gay marriage things on the ballot, watch the conservatives come out, and win and get elected with them. they put it on the ballot in november of 2012 and something very different happened. i would say it s been a ten-year story. we ve been seeing constitutional amendment proposals in minnesota. michele bachmann was very primary in some of those early on. and finally the republicans took over the house and the senate and they passed this amendment to the ballot. and after a really long and intense campaign, spending
for everybody. i think what mark kirk has done is taken the party back to its roots. we believe in equality under the law. and if we stay with that, we do pretty well. what about minnesota, rachael? this is when people look at blue state. you had mondale in 84, a little easier that year. but people look at it as a blue state from the outside, but this is a state that produced michele bachmann, ron grams, there is a very conservative christian element to the republican party in minnesota that maybe keeps republicans from voting with the overstate preference. i think that s true and i think it s way too simplistic to look at us as just a blue state. the current democratic governor is the first in basically a generation from the democratic party. so it s not pure blue. the other thing to look at, particularly as you re looking at republicans, if you think about the members of the house who voted for same-sex marriage, two of those republicans come from kind of swing districts. their