This is pretty stunning:
Urging lawmakers to put themselves on “the right side of history,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visited the Capitol on Tuesday and vowed to support the re-election campaign of any Republican senator who votes to allow gay couples to wed.
[…]
The visit by Mr. Bloomberg, who has been among the biggest donors to Senate Republicans in recent years, came as lawmakers and same-sex marriage advocates begin a monthlong push to muster the small number of Republican votes needed to win approval of same-sex marriage in the Republican-controlled Senate.
“The longer the Senate obstructs marriage equality,” the mayor told reporters, “the heavier the price they will pay not only in the history books, but at the polls.”
[…]
In pledging to support senators who back same-sex marriage — “no matter where they stand on any other issue,” the mayor said — Mr. Bloomberg is dangling a potent political carrot: his money and muscle in the next election.
The article points out that not all the Republicans he met with were swayed, and brings up some of the very normal “generational divide” issues we see on this every day, where older lawmakers know full well that their younger friends and family members solidly support marriage equality, but they’re still just working on wrapping their heads around it. It also includes a desperate quote from NOM’s liar-in-chief, Maggie Gallagher, but it’s not worth reprinting here. She’s basically fighting against [the demons in her head and] the fact that, even among Republicans in the Northeast, marriage equality simply isn’t the wedge issue it used to be.
It’s remarkable, though, seeing Bloomberg advocate on this issue so fiercely.
