No on 8 strategist fires back at Yes on 8 TV ad involving Newsom

Backers of the No on 8 campaign wasted little time Monday condemning Yes on 8's first anti-gay marriage TV ad of the campaign.

The 30-second ad, which prominently features San Francisco Mayor exhorting a City Hall crowd after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages earlier this year, was edited in a fashion as to use Newsom's own words as a scare tactic and as a method to distort the facts of the ballot measure, No on 8 senior strategist Steve Smith said.

"Prop 8 eliminates a fundamental right to marry for same-sex couples, many of whom have been together for years. The proponents of Prop 8 know most voters do not support singling out specific members of our community to be treated differently under the law," Smith said. "That's why they're trying to scare voters into believing Prop 8 is about something other than taking away fundamental rights from our friends, neighbors and family members who are gay or lesbian."

If approved by the voters in November, the ballot measure would define marriage in the California Constitution as being only between a man and a woman and would effectively eliminate legally sanctioned same-sex marriage in the state.

Elsewhere on PolitickerCA.com:

Yes on 8 uses Newsom's own words against him in their first TV ad of campaign