SSM AND UPCOMING MASS. ELECTIONS: From the Boston Globe

Before John Thomas set out to greet voters this spring, he educated himself on the issues he figured were most relevant to them, such as school construction and prescription drug coverage for seniors.

That wasn't what people wanted to talk about.

"The only question that voters wondered where I stood on was the issue of gay marriage," said Thomas, a Democratic candidate for state representative in a district that includes Lincoln, Sudbury, and Wayland. "I was quite flabbergasted."

It's gay marriage, stupid.

If area races are any indication, the issue of gay marriage promises to figure heavily in state legislative contests in the coming months.

With every seat in the Legislature up for grabs and with Governor Mitt Romney recruiting dozens of GOP challengers, expect to see a lot a lot of debate over marriage and perhaps many newly motivated voters by Election Day.

Same-sex marriage, which became legal in Massachusetts on May 17, is already fueling campaign fireworks. Many agree that it won't be the number one issue for most residents. But both sides are already rolling out voter education drives, registering like-minded people, and publicizing where incumbents and their challengers stand.

Although it was the Supreme Judicial Court that legalized same-sex marriage, the key test for incumbent lawmakers came in March, when they voted to place a constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot that would overturn gay marriage and establish civil unions.

The stakes are high in this year's elections, because next year's session of the Legislature must approve the same amendment before it can go on the ballot in 2006.

Consider the race for the 13th Middlesex House district. Thomas and another Democrat, Stas Gayshan, will vie in a September primary to compete in November against state Representative Susan Pope, a Republican.

Thomas and Gayshan both support gay marriage and oppose the proposed amendment to ban it; Pope, who voted for the amendment, supports civil unions, but believes that the term marriage should be reserved for the union of a man and a woman.

Gayshan said that voters want to know where he stands on other issues, but they first ask if he backs same-sex marriage. "It's become a litmus test," he said. ...

Pope said that although she hopes people won't judge her on a single issue, she believes that the vast majority of her constituents want to have a say on gay marriage in 2006. Her office, she said, heard from more than 2,000 people on the subject, about 87 percent of whom said they wanted a chance to vote. ...

Opponents of same-sex marriage and civil unions are hoping to see a repeat of the political purging that took place after Vermont adopted civil unions in 2000. Even though Governor Howard Dean, a supporter of civil unions, was reelected, many legislators on the same side were voted out of office for their stance, said Anthony Gierzynski, a political science professor at the University of Vermont.

"There was quite the backlash that occurred after civil unions were passed," he said. "It was the number one issue."

The political tide turned forcefully enough to wrest the House of Representatives from Democrats, transforming the party's 10-seat margin in the lower chamber into a 20-seat deficit, Gierzynski said.

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