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Mat Staver, an influential evangelical lawyer closely linked with the Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University, has named an unlikely culprit for the passage of four pro-gay marriage measures this year: Mitt Romney.

Staver said Monday on the Christian radio program “Faith and Freedom” that Romney’s refusal to talk about social issues led to voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington State approving ballot measures backing gay marriage. Romney should’ve campaigned in those four states, Staver insisted, and played up the importance of defining marriage as being between a man and a woman only.

But because Romney’s message focused primarily on jobs and the economy, “he could not speak about life or marriage and so he didn’t campaign in those states speaking about those issues and associating himself with marriage,” Staver said, adding, “had he done so, his numbers would’ve gone up and I bet the marriage polls would’ve gone up.”

Staver called Romney “mealy” and a “one-note” candidate, and disparaged him for lacking true social values. “If you’d had a candidate that had social values, you’d have higher voter turnout,” he said. “If you had Romney, you had lower voter turnout. What ultimately happened in the general election is you had lower voter turnout.”

Watch the clip of Staver’s comments above, captured and edited by Right Wing Watch. Here’s the transcript: