GOP Presidential Candidate Pawlenty Declines To Sign The Family Leader Pledge; Says He Fully Supports “Traditional Marriage” But Prefers His Words To Those Of Others

Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday afternoon he will not sign a marriage pledge drafted by the Family Leader, an Iowa-based social conservative group, The Des Moines Register reporting that Pawlenty joins Republican competitors Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson in rejecting the pledge, which calls for candidates to vigorously oppose anything but monogamous one-man/one woman marriage and to advocate for other conservative issues. “I fully support traditional marriage. Unequivocally,” Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, said in a written statement today. “However, rather than sign onto the words chosen by others, I prefer to choose my own words, especially seeking to show compassion to those who are in broken families through no fault of their own.” The Family Leader, led by Sioux City’s Bob Vander Plaats, an influential force among Iowa’s most conservative voters, is on record saying it will not endorse any candidate who does not sign the 14-point “candidate vow.” One provision calls for recognition that married people enjoy better health, better sex, longer lives and greater financial stability and that children raised by their mother and father experience better learning, less addiction and less legal trouble. Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, in Iowa on Monday for a speech in the Family Leader lecture series, did not reject the pledge outright, but said it would need across-the-board changes before he’d be willing to sign it. Only two Republican presidential hopefuls have signed the pledge so far: Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann and Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, both of whom are unapologetically hard-right and are campaigning to win over Iowa conservative evangelicals. Pawlenty’s full statement is at the source.