Sen. Begich
Today BuzzFeed reported that Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, now endorses marriage equality, citing a statement the website procured from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Other news organizations like The Huffington Post have picked up on the news, heralding it as another position switch by a leading national politician. But the Begich endorsement of same-sex marriage is not new.
In fact, Begich endorsed gay marriage last year, in a statement to HRC as the group gathered information to create its congressional scorecard of the 112th Congress, which has been online for months. “HRC included members’ position on marriage equality as part of our 112th Congress scorecard,” said an HRC spokesman to TIME on Tuesday. “Last year when we were assembling scores and statements, Sen. Begich’s office indicated he supported our statement on marriage equality.”
In a TIME article Monday on Senator Mark Warner’s new endorsement of gay marriage, eleven other Senate Democrats were named as non-supporters of same sex nuptials. Begich was not on the list.
HRC’s website has crashed due to an extraordinary amount of traffic as the Supreme Court debates California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. You can, however, find the HRC’s 112th Congressional Scorecard here.
Update: A HRC spokesman told TIME, “We got confirmation from Begich’s staff on July 31, 2012.”