paterson to be asked to stepped down by religious senator

I'm about to head out of my office for a week to go on vacation (finally), but here's some news from the same-sex marriage front, and I think, I THINK, I'm the first to break it. (Too bad the Gazette is a weekly. Also too bad no one reads this. Whatever.)

From the article I'm writing:

Sen. Ruben Diaz Jr. said today he plans on asking Gov. David A. Paterson not to run for governor in 2010.

Paterson introduced same-sex marriage legislation last Thursday, a move Diaz, a Bronx democratic who has been notably opposed to same-sex marriage, said shows the governor is “not taking into consideration the Evangelical and the Christian religion.”

According to Diaz, he and over 100 ministers are “in the process in the next few weeks to organize a demonstration of the Hispanic community to ask Gov. Paterson not to be a candidate for governor.”

“He’s not representing us,” said Diaz. The senator held a meeting of the NY Hispanic Clergy Organization last Thursday at the same time of Paterson’s announcement.

When asked about other plans to oppose the same-sex marriage legislation, Diaz said the bill wouldn’t pass because there are at least “six democrats in the Senate that will not vote for it."

Diaz declined to say who the six were. He did say, however, “Whenever [Sen. Thomas Duane] gives [up] the Republicans he has, I give [up] the Democrats I have.”

I called over to Duane to see if he'll tell me who his Republican supporters are, but he just about never returns my phone calls. And, it wouldn't be likely for him to divulge that info with me anyway.

Paterson is tanking in popularity rankings; I think his last numbers showed only 19 % of people still support him. Being elected gov again is not looking so good for him, and people have been speculating that the democrats would collectively ask him not to run in 2010 so as not to eff everything up for the party. But this is the first time anyone has publicly announced it. It's a shame (not to mention an obvious tactic) that Diaz is doing it in response to Paterson being gutsy enough to introduce pro-gay legislation.

If the democrats do ask Paterson to step down, and I think they will, I hope they note that it's not because of what he said last Thursday. They have their reasons, I just hope his support for GLBT rights isn't one of them.