UPDATED: A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday (i.e., yesterday) shows New York State voters support 54% – 40% a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, with voters under 35 supporting the measure 70% – 26%. Voters 35 to 64 years old also support the measure, while voters over 65 oppose it 57%– 37%. The hugely lopsided support of younger voters further underscores the fact that the GOP's anti-gay agenda represents long term political suicide.*
Sam Stein has a column in the Huffington Post that looks at the financial dynamic that was involved in the marriage equality victory in New York State. Yes, Andrew Cuomo's leadership on the issue - which was starkly different than that of Barack Obama, the Follower in Chief's on LGBT issues - played a huge part. But to seal the deal, Cuomo needed money and in part he got the funds from powerful Republican donors who could intimidate and cajole the feint of heart among the GOP senators. While New York is perhaps a unique situation, the message to Democrats is that they should no longer expect members of the LGBT community to
automatically vote for Democrats out of a knee jerk reaction. At least not in progressive states (Virginia sadly remains decades from such a situation since the Republican Party of Virginia remains so beholden to the Christian Right that it's a wonder it doesn't suffocate from the brown nosing). Here are highlights from Stein's column:*
The passage of historic legislation legalizing same sex marriage in the state of New York last Friday was owed in large part to a compelling political motivator: money.
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Although New York's legislators were already disposed to approving gay marriage because of the more progressive disposition of the state and a major grassroots campaign in support of the bill, LGBT activists from both parties turned to a simple, poignant argument: Lawmakers not only stood to gain the support of well-funded gay-rights supporters if they backed the bill, they would suffer if they opposed it or shied away from the spotlight.
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The politics of gay rights have grown complex in a very short period of time. Once shunned by both parties, only to be picked up as a cause by more progressive-minded Democrats, LGBT issues no longer break down cleanly among the party lines.
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Increasingly, a cadre of deep-pocketed Republican donors is joining in the charge. And the enticements they are using to sway lawmakers are not just conservative arguments for civil liberties or public opinion polls that show a generational divide on gay rights, but the promise of contributions or other forms of political support.
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Some of the biggest donors in the Republican Party were bankrollers of the gay marriage push in New York and, presumably, would write checks for candidates elsewhere who back their worldview. As The New York Times reported, several weeks before the crucial vote, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's most trusted advisers met with "a group of super-rich Republican donors," successfully convincing them to "win over the deciding Senate Republicans." Attendees included Paul Singer, whose son is gay, and hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Dan Loeb. . . . . . Steven Cohen a hedge fund manager and the founder of SAC Capital, also was persuaded to lend his clout to the campaign.
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Last year, the American Foundation for Equal Rights held a major event featuring Singer, Mehlman, and Peter Thiel, the gay billionaire who was an original investor in both PayPal and Facebook. It also included a host of famous [GOP] politicos, like former Gov. William Weld, Environmental Protection Agency head Christie Todd Whitman and Republican operatives Nicole Wallace and Alex Castellanos. The event provided an early illustration of the type of donor base that was available for the right-minded candidate.
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The big time Republican funders, likewise, would make calls of reassurance where need be as would Ted Olson, the Bush v. Gore lawyer who has since played a leading role in arguing the constitutionality of same sex marriage.
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And then there was the governor's office. "Cuomo was able to convince people -- both Democrats and Republicans -- that they were more likely to get reelected if they supported marriage equality than if they didn't," said Richard Socarides, of gay rights organization Equality Matters and the chief aide on LGBT issues in the Clinton White House. "The right-wing threatened these guys and the Catholic Church threatened them."
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"Wall Street interests who supported marriage equality were an important counter to that," he said. "So yes, money played a role."
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In the end, all the money, pressure, behind the scenes lobbying and in front of the cameras advocacy was enough to convince four of 32 state senate Republicans to cast yes votes. That was enough. But in the wake of its passage -- with all the euphoric talk of history's arch and a Cuomo run for the White House at 2016 -- strategy decisions once again revolved around cash.
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"Right now, agenda item number one is making sure that those four courageous Republicans who voted yes are protected," New York Log Cabin Republicans Chairman Gregory T. Angelo told HuffPost's Matt Sledge.
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