Meanwhile In Nebraska…

Chicago Cubs co-owner Pete Ricketts is running for governor of Nebraska. Despite having a gay sister who owns the team with him, he’s against gay marriage as are the other GOP candidates.  Shocking. But the Chicago Cubs have participated in Chicago’s gay pride parade, which one candidate is trying to use against him.

The Cubs’ connection to the parade raised objections from a fellow Republican candidate, who said Thursday it called into question Ricketts’ gay-marriage opposition. Republican Beau McCoy said that Ricketts should be held responsible for the fact that the Cubs are supportive of the gay community. Ricketts said he had no involvement in that decision. He also said that despite some “difficult conversations” in his family, he and his sister remain family. “My sister is gay. I love her, but I disagree with her on this issue,” said Ricketts, an Omaha businessman.

Ricketts, Dubas and several of the other Nebraska gubernatorial candidates staked out their positions on gay marriage Thursday, the day before the Nebraska Legislature was set to hold a public hearing on the topic. In Nebraska, voters banned gay marriage in 2000. Gay couples who are legally married in other states qualify for federal benefits as the result of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. But their marriages are not recognized in Nebraska. All five Republican candidates say they want to keep it that way. Ricketts, McCoy, State Auditor Mike Foley and State Sens. Charlie Janssen and Tom Carlson are on record saying marriage should be between a man and a woman.

McCoy: “I don’t see how it’s possible to be against gay marriage while, at the same time, owning with your family, a national baseball team that purports to be one of the most gay-friendly baseball teams in the country.”