Jerry Brown’s wording may trip up Prop. 8

If same-sex marriage survives next week’s ballot challenge, it will largely be due to state Attorney General Jerry Brown.

It was Brown’s office that decided on the final ballot description for Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian weddings.

And by changing the way the measure was framed in its title and summary, Brown just might have tipped the balance in what looks to be a close election.

Here’s the story:

Prop. 8 asks voters to affirm that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” – a concept that voters overwhelmingly backed when they approved Proposition 22 in 2000.

Voters still favor the traditional definition of marriage, 49 to 47 percent, according to the most recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.

However, in the wake of the state Supreme Court decision in May legalizing same-sex marriage, Brown worded Prop. 8′s ballot description to specify that it “eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.”

The proponents’ original title for Prop. 8 was “Limit on Marriage.” What voters see on their ballot pamphlet, thanks to Brown, is, “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.”

Prop. 8 supporters accused Brown of playing politics and went to court.

They lost. The new language went on the ballot, and pollsters said support for the ban dropped by eight points – with the most recent PPIC survey showing 52 percent of likely voters now opposing the ban.

“It all depends on how you ask the question,” said Sacramento pollster Jim Moore of J. Moore Methods.

“When you ask people what they believe, you get one answer,” he said. “But when you ask someone to take away something from somebody else, it seems unfair.”

Field Institute pollster Mark DiCamillo agreed, noting that when his outfit tested the two wordings in September, support for Prop. 8 was three points lower on Brown’s version than the original.

As the state’s top law enforcer, Brown has taken no official position on Prop. 8.

But it’s interesting to note that he joined fellow Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi at a Hollywood fundraiser for the No on 8 campaign last week.

See more here.