SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said if he unseats Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November he would sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in California.

Angelides talked about the issue the day after New York’s high court upheld that state’s one-man, one-woman marriage laws and as a California appeals court prepared to consider whether a trial judge erred in declaring the state’s marriage laws unconstitutional.

“I would sign the marriage equality bill because I believe if we can get behind people to build a lasting relationship, that is a good thing,” Angelides said at a news conference where Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., urged voters to support him.

The California Legislature last year became the first lawmaking body in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying it was up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the matter.

The measure’s sponsor, Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, plans to reintroduce it in December after the election.

Clinton, who does not support same-sex marriage, refused to answer questions about the July 6 court ruling in her home state, but made a brief pitch on Angelides’ behalf.

She said she had known Angelides since his days as head of the California Democratic Party in the early 1990s, when her husband, former President Clinton, was running against President George Herbert Walker Bush. That race, she said, mirrors the one Angelides is in now.

“He brought passion and commitment to a campaign that was on an uphill side,” Clinton said of the 1992 race, adding that in taking on Schwarzenegger, Angelides “was unafraid when it looked like a hopeless cause because he believed California could do better.”