new york democrats

New York state senate Democrats may have secured control of their chamber by bargaining away marriage equality on Thursday. Since Election Day, when Democrats won a two-seat majority in the chamber after decades of Republican rule, three conservative members of the caucus had threatened to defect to the GOP unless they received more power. But a handshake deal in New York City apparently gave the holdouts what they wanted, The New York Times reports.

Eliot Spitzer, New York's newly elected Democratic governor, will not back down on a promise to propose legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

After first disparaging her looks, Hillary Clinton's Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate has now questioned her sexuality. In an interview with a local Westchester County, N.Y., newspaper, John Spencer suggested the New York senator and Democratic star is a lesbian.

New York's Republican senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, a 32-year institution in the state senate, announced his retirement Tuesday just as the GOP and Democrats gird for an election season that will determine the fate of the chamber and, potentially, New York's gay marriage bill. Democrats need to pick up two seats this November in order to gain control of the chamber -- something most LGBT activists wager would hasten the process of getting a same-sex marriage bill to the desk of Gov. David Paterson, who has supported marriage equality since the mid '90s. Democratic strategists said Bruno's exit raises questions about how effectively the GOP can raise money in his absence and whether they can hold certain constituencies together.

The Democratic-controlled New York State assembly passed Gov. Eliot Spitzer's bill to legalize same-sex marriage Tuesday night in a decisive 85-61 vote. Gay rights advocates hailed it as a victory even though the bill stands almost no chance of being voted on in the state senate, where Republicans hold a slim two-seat majority.