California gay marriage ruling

Click more to view links to different editorial cartoonists' take on the California Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling.

Supporters and opponents of a statewide measure expected to appear on November’s ballot aimed at defining marriage as between a man and woman are gearing up for a heated, expensive fight, both sides have told PolitickerCA.com.

“It’s really going to be the fight of our lives,” said Alice Keffler, a representative for Equality California, a gay rights organization that is leading the charge against the measure.

Keffler said she expected opponents of the measure to raise between $16-$20 million for the fight, while Andrew Pugno, an attorney who is helping to head up the effort to pass the measure, said he believed his side would need to spend between $10-$15 million. “It will be difficult, but it will be necessary,” said Pugno.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: Getty Images PhotoSan Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is taking a victory lap today after the California Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of gay marriage.

Newsom, who in February 2004 issued a directive allowing same sex couples to wed in the city, said today’s decision was a victory for equality.

“We could not be more proud and exhilarated,” said Newsom in a conference call with reporters an hour after the decision was posted on the Court’s Web site.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: Getty Images PhotoSan Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was in Washington, D.C., today to testify before Congress on green building standards, is on a plane home this evening in anticipation of the California Supreme Court’s Thursday morning decision on the legality of same-sex marriage, a mayoral spokesman tells PolitickerCA.com.

The court’s decision, which comes four years after Newsom allowed 4,000 couples to wed in City Hall, is almost certain to dominate California political headlines tomorrow.

Stay tuned to PolitickerCA.com for more on the story.