Last week, I wrote about a Boston-based activist’s efforts to get the candidates for attorney general in Connecticut to support a lawsuit by Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley aimed at overturning the Defense of Marriage Act.
Since then, another one of the Democrats running for the office said he would join Coakley’s legal battle against the federal government.
In an email to Paul Sousa, George Jepsen said he has had time to research the matter and would file a friend of the court brief if he is elected AG.
“I have had the chance to get up to speed on the Massachusetts DOMA suit, and am fully supportive. As Connecticut’s AG I would be willing to file an amicus brief in support, and would solicit the AGs of other states to do so as well,” Jepsen wrote to Sousa. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”
Sousa’s group, Defend the Law, will now focus its attention solely on Susan Bysiewicz, the only Democratic AG candidate who has not said whether she would join Coakley’s effort, although she expressed support for the state law that permits same-sex couples to marry. The group plans to call and email Bysiewicz to convince her to sign on to the Massachusetts lawsuit.
“Campaign organizers are optimistic that Bysiewicz will join her fellow Democratic Attorney General candidates in being willing to legally supporting the DOMA lawsuit, if elected Attorney General,” Sousa said in an email.
A third Democrat running for AG, Rep. Cameron Staples, said he would join the lawsuit against the feds if elected.
But the two of the three Republicans exploring a run for AG are on record as opposing Sousa’s request to sign on to the suit; a third, Martha Dean, did not offer an opinion when asked about the issue last week.