The Road t to Marriage Victory in New York

There's still plenty of analysis of how marriage equality was won in New York State. One thing that seems to have been key was a member of the executive branch who wasn't afraid to be a leader - .i.e., Governor Andrew Cuomo. To me, the contrast between Cuomo and Obama could not be more stark. Obama always follows - often unwillingly and kicking and screaming. Cuomo took charge of the issue head on and worked all the factions and brought the discipline to get the job done. Imagine what could be done if Washington if we had a head of the executive branch who wasn't afraid of his own shadow most of the time. There's already talk of Cuomo as a possible contender in 2016 and if he can continue to get things done and be a LEADER, the conjecturing could be on the mark. At present, one poll shows 59% of Republicans approving Cuomo's performance in office. Here are highlights from two New York Times stories - here and here - that look at the results achieved in New York State:
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It sounded improbable: top Republican moneymen helping a Democratic rival [Cuomo] with one of his biggest legislative goals.
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But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb — had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views. Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board.
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The story of how same-sex marriage became legal in New York is about shifting public sentiment and individual lawmakers moved by emotional appeals from gay couples who wish to be wed. But, behind the scenes, it was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition.
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And it was about a Democratic governor, himself a Catholic, who used the force of his personality and relentlessly strategic mind to persuade conflicted lawmakers to take a historic leap.
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Mr. Cuomo was diplomatic but candid with gay-rights advocates in early March when he summoned them to the Capitol’s Red Room, a ceremonial chamber with stained-glass windows and wood-paneled walls. . . . . . “You can either focus on the goal, or we can spend a lot of time competing and destroying ourselves,” the governor said. This time around, the lobbying had to be done the Cuomo way: with meticulous, top-down coordination. “I will be personally involved,” he said.
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By the time a Catholic bishop from Brooklyn traveled to Albany last week to tell undecided senators that passing same-sex marriage “is not in keeping with the will of their people,” it was clear the church had been outmaneuvered by the highly organized same-sex marriage coalition, with its sprawling field team and, especially, its Wall Street donors. “In many ways,” acknowledged Dennis Poust, of the New York State Catholic Conference, “we were outgunned. That is a lot to overcome.”
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Mr. Cuomo invited the Republicans to visit him at the governor’s residence, a 40-room Victorian mansion overlooking the Hudson River, just a few blocks from the Capitol.
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There, in a speech the public would never hear, he offered his most direct and impassioned case for allowing gays to wed. Gay couples, he said, wanted recognition from the state that they were no different from the lawmakers in the room. “Their love is worth the same as your love,” Mr. Cuomo said, according to someone who heard him. “Their partnership is worth the same as your partnership. And they are equal in your eyes to you. That is the driving issue.” In the late hours of Friday night, 33 members of the State Senate agreed with him.
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As for Cuomo's future? Here are more highlights:
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The passage of a same-sex-marriage bill late Friday in New York drew considerable national coverage to the Empire State and was broadly touted as a major victory for first-term Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
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It also has stoked talk that Cuomo is rapidly transforming himself into a first among equals when it comes to the jockeying for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
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“It’s not just that he delivered on a major civil rights issue for the Democratic base in a huge state, it’s how he did it — winning bipartisan support and sticking with it when it seemed it might fail,” Democratic consultant Jason Ralston said. “Combine that with his name and his focus on the middle class, and he is at the front of the pack for 2016.”
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A Quinnipiac University poll conducted earlier this month showed that more than six in 10 New Yorkers approved of the job Cuomo was doing, while just 18 percent disapproved. Amazingly, 59 percent of self-identified Republicans said they approved of how Cuomo was handling his job.
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“If you can govern successfully in this environment, everyone has to take you seriously,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala.