Gay Marriage Faces Close N.J. Senate Vote

Gay marriage advocates were stopping people in the streets of towns around New Jersey on Wednesday asking them to call their lawmakers on the spot.

Opponents were calling lawmakers too, and also making sure their conservative views were represented in an online poll on the topic.

The commotion comes as the state Senate prepares for Thursday's vote on whether to legalize gay marriage.

State Sen. President Richard Codey decided Tuesday to post the bill for a vote, even though it faces long odds.

Senators removed it from an agenda before a vote last month when it appeared the measure would fail.

To get it adopted, advocates will have to change the minds of some Senators who have publicly declared their opposition to it.

Gay rights advocates are operating with urgency because of the change in governors looming Jan. 19. Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, supports gay marriage. Chris Christie, the Republican who will replace him, says he would veto the bill.

While it's technically possible for lawmakers to get Corzine a passed bill before noon Jan. 19 when Christie takes office, the best - if small chance - of the bill passing is by Jan. 12.

If the Senate adopts the bill Thursday, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts says he'll put it up for a vote in his chamber Monday.

Currently, only five states recognize gay marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. New Jersey offers civil unions, which give the legal protections of marriage, but not the title.

Levi Knapp, the field manager in the Collingswood office of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said interest from supporters surged after Codey scheduled a Senate vote.

More than two dozen supporters went outside on the chilly day to seek calls to lawmakers, he said. Dozens more were expected in the office for evening phone banking geared at getting supporters to Trenton for a rally before the vote.

He said reports that the bill is likely headed toward defeat didn't dissuade volunteers. "That's pretty amazing, the resilience of the people whose lives are affected," he said.

The National Organization for Marriage e-mailed its supporters to encourage New Jersey residents to weigh in on the issue.

And a socially conservative state group was leaving nothing to chance. The New Jersey Family Policy Council was asking its members to vote "no" on gay marriage in an unscientific poll on nj.com, the Web site of the Star-Ledger of Newark and other New Jersey newspapers owned by Advance Publications.

Within an hour Wednesday afternoon, support on the survey swung from heavily supporting gay marriage to opposing it, though by a tighter margin.

Random polls conducted by professionals have shown the public split. In two polls in November, the state's voters narrowly favored it; in a third, they were narrowly opposed.