Connolly to lead gay-marriage campaign

 Jesse Connolly, chief of staff for House Speaker Hannah Pingree, is taking a leave of absence from his job this summer to manage the gay-marriage referendum campaign, Maine Freedom to Marry announced today.

 Connolly served as campaign manager for Maine Won’t Discriminate in 2005, a successful effort to reject a people’s veto of a law adding gays and lesbians to the Maine Human Rights Act.

 The announcement of the Maine Freedom to Marry political action committee comes even before those gathering signatures to overturn the gay-marriage law have turned in their signatures to the Secretary of State. That’s expected to happen in early August and we’ll know by September whether they have enough valid signatures to put a repeal question on the November ballot.

 By creating a PAC now, the repeal opponents can begin raising and spending money to get ready for a statewide battle.

 The most recent polling on the issue in Maine shows Maine people are just about evenly divided on the issue of letting gay and lesbian couples marry.

 Joining Connolly in the campaign will be attorney Mary Bonauto of the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union; and Pat Peard, another attorney who has been active in gay and lesbian issues in Maine for 15 years.