Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has been a fierce defender of the “marriage protection amendment” despite being divorced. He penned a column for the Red Wing Republican Eagle urging voters to approve the amendment and criticized marriage equality activists’ claims around the amendment, but Minnesota Public Radio’s Poligraph determined that Drazkowki misused research to make his claims.

He also that marriage equality advocates who say the amendment would hurt Minnesota’s business climate are wrong:

“To the contrary, the facts show that states with a marriage protection amendment are our top performing economic states,” he wrote. “For example, eight of the top 10 ‘best states for business’ according to a survey of 556 CEO’s by Chief Executive Magazine have a state marriage amendment in their constitution. ”

But despite his claims that marriage equality advocates are wrong, MPR found that his claim did not stand up to scrutiny:

“Drazkowski’s claim is misleading. While eight of Chief Executive Magazine’s top 10 states best for business have constitutional amendments that ban same-sex marriage, there’s no correlation between the bans and the business ranking.”

MPR also said, “It’s also useful to look at other rankings. For example, Forbes Magazine released its list in November, and it includes Iowa, where same-sex marriage is allowed. A recent study conducted by the Williams Institute found that legal same-sex marriage boosted the wedding and tourism industries in Iowa by upwards of $13 million.”