Marilinda Garcia Apologizes for Not Citing Speech's Passages

Republican House candidate Marilinda Garcia has acknowledged she should have attributed parts of a speech she made on same-sex marriage.

The statement came after the liberal advocacy group Granite State Progress pointed out several passages in the 2012 speech Garcia gave on the floor of the state House of Representatives in which she argued against same-sex marriage. The original writing appeared in an editorial in the conservative magazine National Review.

The four-term state representative is trying to oust incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster.

Garcia called the lack of attribution an oversight.

"It appears I did not verbally attribute select excerpts of a speech I delivered on the House floor in 2012 to the article from which they came," she said in a statement. "I acknowledge that I should have verbally cited the author of the article and apologize for the oversight."

In her speech, Garcia said: "The campaign for same-sex marriage, as evidenced by the immediate abandonment of civil unions, is primarily motivated by one specific benefit, and that is the symbolic statement by the government that committed same-sex relationships are equivalent to marriages. But with respect to the purposes of marriage, they're not equivalent. And so, this psychic benefit cannot be granted without telling a lie about what marriage is, and why a society and legal system should recognize and support it."

In the 2010 editorial, the National Review wrote: "The campaign for same-sex marriage is primarily motivated by one specific benefit: the symbolic statement by the government that committed same-sex relationships are equivalent to marriages. But with respect to the purposes of marriages, they're not equivalent; and so this psychic benefit cannot be granted without telling a lie about what marriage is and why a society and legal system should recognize and support it."

Granite State Progress on Friday said it appears Garcia used other material without attribution in a speech earlier this year.

Democrats say the lapse calls Garcia's integrity into question.