Bob Vander Plaats, who helms the group behind the effort to ban gay marriage in Iowa, has dismissed former Iowa state Senator Jeff Angelo's new group for conservatives who support gay marriage.

Angelo's Iowa Republicans for Freedom held its first press conference on Wednesday.

In 2006, the former senator co-sponsored an amendment that sought to define marriage as a heterosexual union in the Iowa Constitution. A successful effort would have prevented the Iowa Supreme Court from legalizing the institution three years later.