NY Senator Mark Grisanti (R)
The donations included $10,300 from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who was a strong proponent of the new law, and $10,000 from Colorado resident Tim Gill, who heads a group that has promoted gay marriage laws here and in other states.
Other donors to Grisanti who have publicly backed gay marriage rights include $5,000 from Miami-area resident Jonathan Kislak, $2,000 from Carol Master of Massachusetts, $10,000 from Albany-area resident Frank Selvaggi and $5,000 from Manhattan real estate developer Donald Capoccia.
The money came in the days after the June 24 vote and before Monday’s cutoff for donations that officials must include in financial-disclosure reports with the state Board of Elections.
Bloomberg — who attached a thank you note to his contributions — also donated $10,300 to the three other Republican senators who voted for the marriage bill, Roy McDonald, Stephen Saland and James Alesi.
Groups like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have pledged to spend $2 million to defeat the three Democrats and four Republicans who once opposed same-sex marriage but voted for it last month, but they may be outmatched by the $1 million supporters of marriage equality have committed and the GOP’s healthy fundraising numbers. “We’re getting a lot of support from independents and from Democrats,” Sen. Thomas Libous, who runs the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, said, highlighting that the majority’s campaign committee has already “collected more than $2.7 million in donations.”
Internal Republican polls conducted before the crucial vote also showed that voters prioritize economic issues over marriage, and that lawmakers from conservative districts who supported marriage equality would likely win reelection.
Previous in TP LGBT
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.