Grisanti speaks about gay marriage vote

WIVB.com

Posted by: Eli George

Updated: Oct 17, 2011 5:41 PM

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — New York State Senator Mark Grisanti is speaking out about his vote for gay marriage and his fight to retain the seat he holds.

Money was not an issue, Grisanti says, when it came to voting for same-sex marriage.

"It wasn't, you know, 'You vote this way and you're going to see an influx of cash,' or anything like that in your pockets," explained Grisanti.

Last week, Grisanti and three other Senate Republicans attended a fundraiser in Manhattan, honoring them for voting to legalize gay marriage. The event was co-hosted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. At one time, Grisanti opposed gay marriage but says changing his position was the right thing to do.

"If I had voted no on this marriage equality bill," said Grisanti, "I'd probably be getting money from the other side as well. So I don't see why it's such a big issue."

And while Grisanti maintains that he did not do it for the money, and did it because it was the right thing to do, his campaign bank account is about to get bigger.

Grisanti stated, "I don't know personally how much I will get, but I'm hearing what was raised was between $1 million and $1.2 million. I don't know how much I'm going to get out of that."

The Conservative National Organization for Marriage isn't wasting any time going on the attack by launching an online advertisement called "Money Dance" against Grisanti and the other lawmakers. Prior to that, the group put up billboards, including one along Interstate 190 that reads, "Mark Grisanti: You're Next."

"To say, 'you're next,' first of all I don't know what they means," said Grisanti. "If they want to come after me for a one issue vote that's fine. That's a category that they're in. There's other people out there that want this seat in order to change certain political structures in Albany. Whatever they're going to do, they're going to do and we're just going to just keep moving forward."

Copyright 2012 WIVB.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Political Pulse

We welcome your thoughtful comments. Be the first to participate in the discussion. All comments will display your username and avatar.