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Good news in NY; GOP softening
Topic Started: Apr 22 2009, 06:08 PM (138 Views)
Bernard
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Senior Carp
Our friends the Republicans may be able to help us this time around... But I have to say, party politics sickens me--on both sides of the aisle.

[] = my clarifications...

April 21, 2009

New York Marriage Bill Gets GOP Boost
By Kerry Eleveld

The Log Cabin Republicans announced Tuesday that the GOP's New York leadership in both the state senate and assembly are going to allow Republican legislators to make "conscience votes" on Gov. David Paterson's marriage-equality bill rather than pressuring party members to vote against it, giving the legislation a much stronger likelihood of picking up Republican votes in both chambers.

The development may be particularly important in the senate, where Democrats hold a slim 32-30 majority, four Democrats [Democraps] have already said they will vote against the marriage bill, and equality advocates will need to pick up several GOP votes in order to pass the legislation. Strategists expect the legislation to sail through the assembly, which already passed an identical bill in 2007 by a vote of 85 to 61.

Jeff Cook, legislative adviser for the Log Cabin Republicans, said the decision stood in stark contrast to the tack taken in 2007, when assembly minority leader Jim Tedisco and the GOP leadership pressured assembly Republicans to vote against marriage equality.

"We were successful in that environment in getting four Republicans to vote yes, making it the first bipartisan vote on marriage in a legislative chamber," Cook said. "But we would have probably done better if there was a 'vote of conscience.'"

Cook declined to discuss the vote count on the Republican side of the aisle in the senate but said that today's decision was an important turning point. "Republicans realize that marriage equality is inevitable in New York and they do not want to vote against this," he said. "I think they realize that the polling is changing very fast and they do not want our party to be perceived as being hostile on this issue." A Siena poll released yesterday found 53% of the state's voters want Governor Paterson's marriage-equality bill passed, while 39% are opposed to it.

Cook called it "significant" that "the center of gravity in both parties has shifted on this issue to where Republicans now feel like their conference needs to be neutral and Democrats feel their conference needs to be emphatic in support."


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A note: I would say if there's emphatic Democratic support they are talking about NY. Obviously we don't get emphatic support from the White House.
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Phlebas
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Bull-Carp
I think it's only a matter of time for NY.
Random FML: Today, I was fired by my boss in front of my coworkers. It would have been nice if I could have left the building before they started celebrating. FML

The founding of the bulk of the world's nation states post 1914 is based on self-defined nationalisms. The bulk of those national movements involve territory that was ethnically mixed. The foundation of many of those nation states involved population movements in the aftermath. When the only one that is repeatedly held up as unjust and unjustifiable is the Zionist project, the term anti-semitism may very well be appropriate. - P*D


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jon-nyc
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Cheers
Yep.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
Our representatives should always vote their conscience.

This party boss mentality has got to stop. It's destroying our country.
___.___
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o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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Lucky Lurker
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Junior Carp
What Mark said. ^^^^
Sock puppet permit rejected.
Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
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