Duane: Gay marriage has Senate GOP supporters - New York Politics Capitol Confidential - Albany Times Union - timesunion.com:
"Sen. Tom Duane said that he is confident that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage will pass this year, and that it will pass with bipartisan support.
...
Duane said he has received commitments of support from individual Republican senators, but wouldn’t name them.
Duane said that he did not think that those unnamed senators would renege on their commitment to him..."
It very likely could happen. Just look at the politics:
ReplyDelete- Malcolm Smith owes his political fortunes to Paterson and as far as we know the Gov. has yet to call in a big favor
- There have to be at least 5 GOP Senators in New York that have a gay relative or friend who look at this and say "what's the big deal?"
- There is nothing but upside for the GOP: the bill fails and they can say "we stopped it", if it passes they have a campaign issue for 2010
- There is nothing but upside for Smith: it passes and he gets to be the hero to the gay community, it fails and he has a campaign issue for 2010
- The GOP may take back the State Senate in 2010 no matter what, at least this way Smith gets a legacy
The one thing I don't know (that you likely do): are there any crazy legislative "hold" rules in the NYS Senate?