EQCA Responds To 2010 vs 2012 Controversy (Sorta)

Equality California's Marriage Director Marc Solomon responded to both Jordan Rustin Coalition's Prepare to Prevail statement and Love Honor Cherish's response with a carefully written post on EQCA's California Ripple Effect blog which includes explicit benchmarks for when the LGBT community should return to the ballot to win marriage equality once and for all:

n late May, we told the community that, preliminarily, based on all we knew at the time, we believed we should return to the ballot in 2010. We also promised that we would not go back to the ballot on our own, but only together with coalition partners. And we said that, before we concluded what the right timing was, we would perform extensive “due diligence,” speaking with and listening to our coalition partners, volunteers in the field, donors, political consultants, pollsters, and many others. As we said in late May, a roadmap to victory includes:

• A realistic and executable fundraising plan. We must be able to raise between $25 and $50 million, with a good portion of that coming early on in the campaign when much of the persuasion work needs to be done.

• A governance structure that works. We need a campaign structure that engenders the confidence of the community and balances the need for inclusive representation with the need to act decisively and quickly.

• A winnable campaign plan. Polling shows that we have approximately the same level of support for marriage equality as we did when Proposition 8 passed. We need to know that if we can raise the funds and have a solid governance structure, we have a well-thought out program of how we are going to prevail.

• A commitment to doing the hard work. In order to move enough people to win, we must be out speaking to voters who are not yet with us, relentlessly. Tomorrow we will report on the results of our field efforts to date.
  

Our threshold has always been that we want to go back to the ballot at the earliest time that we have a strong chance of prevailing.

This is not inconsistent with what the POC groups are saying. One main goal in releasing Prepare to Prevail is to push the community to use data and facts to inform a decision on when to go to the ballot instead of desire and feelings.

I know that EQCA can not take an official position on 2010 versus 2012 until their next board meeting which is not until August 2, the day of their Los Angeles Equality Awards featuring (Massachusetts Governor) Deval Patick, (West Hollywood City Councilman) John Duran and (Congresswoman-elect) Judy Chu.

What do you think EQCA should do, and when do you think an initiative constitutional amendment to replace (and repeal) Proposition 8 should be on the ballot? 2010? 2012? 2014?