Advocates in New York remain confident that the highly dysfunctional state senate there will vote this year on a marriage equality bill that has, so far, been kept from a floor vote, WNYC reports.
But to the south in New Jersey, a bill to establish marriage equality in that state may have hit a roadblock. Associated Press reported Saturday that a key senator says there are not enough votes on the judiciary committee to bring the marriage equality bill up for a vote.
“Today, as I stand here, we do not have the votes in the Judiciary Committee,” Sen. Paul Sarlo, the committee chair, told AP. He said he will not bring the matter up in his committee until he’s confident he has the votes to pass it.
And it can’t be considered by the full senate until it passes in Sarlo’s committee.
Even if it did pass in the senate, it’s unclear, according to AP, that the measure has enough votes to pass in the lower house, the Assembly.
Marriage equality advocates in New Jersey feel a time crunch because they want to see the measure passed before January when Gov. Jon Cozine leaves office. Cozine supports the measure, but he will be succeeded by Republican Chris Christie.
In New York, Gov. David Paterson has pressured senators to vote on the measure. He called the legislature back for another special session today, and once again asked senators to bring the marriage equality bill up for a floor vote, even if senate leaders are not sure that it will pass.
The bill has already passed in the Assembly, so it would move on to Paterson for his signature if it passes in the senate.
Marriage equality watch/wait goes on in NY and NJ [contd.]
If the bill gets to the floor, activist Ethan Geto confidently predicted to WNYC radio, “We have the votes.”
Although he wouldn’t release the names of so-far undisclosed supporter of the measure, the bill’s chief sponsor, Senator Tom Duane, also told WNYC’s Ailsa Chang that he has the votes locked up to pass the measure on the floor of the senate.
“I’m not releasing my vote count until we’re ready to vote,” Duane said. “What people have told me, they’ve told me in confidence. It just wouldn’t be appropriate for me to share that.”
But before those still-secret votes can make a difference, the marriage equality bill must be brought to the floor by the senate leadership – and that’s something they have so far been unwilling to do, despite pressure from Paterson and LGBT advocates like Geto.
After last Tuesday’s unproductive “extraordinary session,” Majority Conference Leader John Sampson vowed gay marriage will come up for a vote by the end of the year. And Geto believes the Democrats will deliver on that – if they know what’s good for them.
Geto told Chang that he and other equality advocates have made it clear to senators that they can’t count on LGBT support in future elections if they don’t vote this year on marriage equality.
But that doesn’t explain why it’s taken so long to bring the issue to a vote so far. The Majority Conference Leader supports the bill. So does Senate President Malcolm Smith. And Majority Leader Pedro Espada. The whole triumvirate is on board. But Senator Espada says their leadership may not be enough.
[Espada said,] “It takes a great deal of work to break through the politics of this. Specifically, there are members in both conferences that would want to thwart this.
Source: WNYC - News - Advocates Optimistic About a Yes Vote on Same Sex Marriage