"Marriage amendment strategy backfires on GOP"

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Posted: Nov. 9, 2006: Marriage amendment strategy backfires on GOP - JSOnline:

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

Get the proposed same-sex marriage constitutional amendment on the November ballot to drive up the Republican vote while driving Democrats out of office. The plan worked for President Bush two years ago, particularly in Ohio. So why wouldn't it do the same in Wisconsin this year, the GOP brass reasoned.

Welcome to the real world.

'The timing ended up backfiring,' said U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Menomonee Falls Republican. 'I think the opposite worked out this time.'

The controversial amendment easily passed Tuesday, with Wisconsin voters approving the ban by 59% to 41%.

[more at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

So, to make this perfectly clear, the main reason that Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature passed this measure was to draw conservatives out to vote, in hopes of getting more Republicans elected.