Indiana Speaker Brian Bosma steps in front on marriage battle with force
INDIANAPOLIS — House Speaker Brian Bosma has spent months working behind the scenes to approve an amendment banning gay marriage while publicly keeping the measure at arm's length, promising that it would run its normal democratic course in the Statehouse. Until last week.
Bosma's public revelation that he was ready to change the makeup of the House Judiciary Committee in order to advance the measure showed just how much pressure is being applied outside the public eye to ensure the proposed ban advances.
Bosma has spent hours inside private meetings of the Republican caucus pushing the amendment. Routine meetings of House committees have been thrown off track as rank-and-file Republicans have tried to figure out when the marriage debate would hit the full House.
The first hint that things might not go according to plan came last Monday, after the House Judiciary Committee heard close to four hours of testimony. Committee Chairman Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, ended the committee without holding a planned vote, amid speculation that a handful of wavering Republicans could spike the measure.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140119/NEWS/140119549/1054/LIVING