Roylance said she did see the endorsement coming since Walker had said on the radio last month that she'd probably vote for the amendment, though she still had concerns about the second part.

Scott McCoy, head of the Don't Amend Alliance campaign against the amendment, said it's telling that even in endorsing the amendment Walker noted potential conflicts with the amendment's second part.

"I'm glad that she understood this isn't a simple issue," McCoy said. "This is a complex issue that people really need to weigh and think about."

Two months ago, the governor was much less certain about the amendment. She said she still needed to decide whether her belief in the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman outweighed the "complex issues" raised by the second part of the amendment.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a Republican like Walker who also opposes gay marriage, had announced earlier in August that the amendment was "a bad law and should be rejected" because it "goes too far."

---

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com; dbulkeley@desnews.com