The New York Post on the latest out of Albany:

Tense dueling protests shook the Senate’s marble halls this morning as the chamber’s Republican majority huddled privately over a jam-packed agenda that included a possible vote on gay marriage.

... “Once again, we urge you to stand strong for traditional marriage and not put a bill on the floor,” Long said. “Any bill that will harm our state should not be allowed a vote.”

...  The Conservative chairman has threatened to strip the party’s endorsement from any Republican senator who votes for marriage, a move that could jeopardize the party’s one-vote majority and its only toehold to state power.

... Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) has so far not committed to any action on the marriage bill, despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s assertion last night that New Yorkers were “entitled” to a public vote.

“The governor at one time said he didn’t want a vote on marriage unless it was going to pass,” Skelos told reporters after he arrived this morning. “He’s changed his tune. We haven’t conferenced that issue and some point we will.”

Any vote would follow action on the omnibus rent bill, meaning action was unlikely until late tonight and possibly might not come until tomorrow or Friday.

An op-ed from Sen. Rev. Ruben Diaz and Michael Long, Chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State:

Politics is a team sport. The decision of senate Republicans to take up this bill, and thus help enable Governor Cuomo’s goal to pass gay marriage, will affect the way voters across the state view the Republican party — especially if Republican state senators told voters one thing during the campaign, and now propose to change their votes at Governor Cuomo’s behest.

The National Organization for Marriage released a poll of registered New Yorkers, conducted this past weekend. Fifty-seven percent of New York voters agree that “marriage should only be between a man and a woman” versus 32 percent who disagree. Meanwhile, the new NOM poll shows that only about one in four New York voters (26 percent) prefer legislators in Albany to decide this issue, while 59 percent say the issue of marriage should be decided by the voters in New York.

... If gay marriage advocates honestly believe they have a super-majority of New Yorkers in their corner, they should join with us to agree to permit a referendum to decide this issue. If they do not, their claims to represent the majority will ring rather hollow. This gay-marriage bill is not in the best interests of New York, it is not the choice of New Yorkers, and it is decidedly against the interests of the Republican party.

...The last time the Republican party caved on a deeply important social issue — abortion — it destroyed the party’s prospects for years. And for what? To help Andrew Cuomo run for president? As Brian Brown, president of NOM, quipped:

Selling your principles in order to get elected is wrong, selling your principles to help get the other guy get elected is just plain dumb.

Memo to GOP leadership: Kill this bill, and let the people of New York decide the future of marriage.

Possibly both.

After the Albany Times Union attributed NOM's 57% of New Yorkers rejecting SSM to an unusual number of old people, we decided to check NOM's poll and the Siena poll against the 2010 vote.

Here are the percentages of voters in 2010 by age (source: civicyouth.org - page 10):
18-24 5%
25-29 6%
30-44 22%
45-59 33%
60+ 33%

NOM’s poll used different ages as did the Siena poll. Still, here’s a rough comparison:

2010 Voters                   NOM Poll                    Siena Poll
18-24 5%                          18-39 7%                    18-34 22%
25-29 6%
30-44 22%                       40-49 15%                  35-54 37%
45-59 33%                       50-59 31%
60+ 33%                          60+ 38%                      55+ 37%

Our read is that NOM’s poll is probably lower than the percentage of 2010 voters and the Siena poll is probably high for young voters (based on a very rough approximation that the 2010 voter data would be 23% for 18-39 and 18% for 18-34). NOM’s poll is a little high for 60+ but Siena’s is quite low for that group (based on our approximation of 55+ 2010 voters as 44%). NOM is pretty close on the 40-49 category (We’re guessing it’s 18% of 2010 voters and NOM surveyed 15% in this age group). Siena’s number is probably about right for 35-54.

In other words, NOM's poll may skew slightly old, but Siena's poll overesamples young people, compared to actual voters in New York elections. No poll has ever shown that gay marriage is a high priority for any sizable number of New Yorkers. Or that New Yorkers prefer to leave this issue to the legislature.