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PHOENIX -- Foes of a ban on same-sex marriage said Wednesday they managed to make Arizona the only state to kill the measure by focusing public attention on its effects on straight couples rather than what it would mean to gays. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, chair of the campaign to defeat Proposition 107, conceded that the strategy of the media campaign was to show straight couples who would lose their domestic partner benefits. That's because the initative would not only have constitutionally barred gay marriage but also precluded governments from adopting policies that allow employees to add their domestic partners -- whether of the same or opposite sex -- to their health insurance or to gain any other benefits. Sinema, who is bisexual, justified that by saying that out of an estimated 112,000 unmarried couples living together in Arizona, only about 18,000 are gay. She said the $2.1 million campaign was necessary to convince Arizona voters that this is more than just an issue affecting gays. "Most people who would be hurt by 107 are heterosexual couples," added Steve May, the other campaign leader, who is gay. "And that's the message that our opposition tried to hide." Whether Proposition 107 actually has been defeated remains to be formally decided. There are upwards of 250,000 ballots yet to be counted in Maricopa County. Joe Yuhas, the campaign consultant for the no on 107 campaign, pointed out that the ballots already tallied show more Maricopa County residents oppose the measure than support it. He said the only way the results can change now is if the 60 percent of the remaining uncounted ballots are in favor of the measure. "Only Graham County voted yes by the margin of 60 percent," he said. "So, the numbers are daunting," Yuhas continued. "That's why we have every confidence that we're here today to declare victory." But Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, is not ready to concede defeat. Maricopa County officials say they can process about 50,000 early ballots a day. But there also are 37,000 provisional ballots which take longer to verify if the person voted legally. That means it could be next week before the full results are known. "We realize it's a long shot," Herrod said. But Herrod said she has seen mathematical scenarios which show that a high number of Republicans voting early could actually push the measure through. Sinema said supporters sought to mislead the public by focusing on the ban on gay marriage. But he said that's not an issue as a 1997 state law already bans such weddings in Arizona and forbids the state from recognizing same-sex nuptials performed legally elsewhere. That law has been upheld by the state Supreme Court. But foes never mentioned in any of their commercials or any of their campaign literature that the initiative also would have precluded a court from concluding that gays are entitled to the same legal rights as married couples, allowing them to form domestic partnerships. That issue never has been addressed by Arizona courts -- meaning that with the defeat of Proposition 107 it remains a legal option. Courts in several other states have issued similar orders, most recently in New Jersey where the justices gave legislators six months to eliminate discrimination by either legalizing gay marriage or allowing for civil unions. Sinema acknowledged there already is a precedent of sorts in Arizona: Tucson has a domestic partner registry which allows couples to sign up and be entitled to certain rights, such as hospital visitation. Yuhas said that focus on the effects on straight couples is what enabled Arizona to be the only one of eight states Tuesday that defeated a gay marriage ban. So far 27 states have approved such measures.