Mayor Bloomberg has contributed the maximum amount allowed — $10,300 — to each of the four Republican legislators whose votes helped push gay marriage through a balky state Senate, The Post has learned.
“The mayor said he would support Senate Republicans who stood up and he did,” said Micah Lasher, director of the mayor’s Albany office.
Bloomberg’s $41,200 in contributions were made after New York on June 24 became the sixth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriages.
The measure, which easily passed the Assembly, was enacted after intense lobbying by Bloomberg convinced enough on-the-fence Republican senators to go along. The measure passed the Senate 33-29.
Those receiving the mayor’s checks were:
Mark Grisanti of Buffalo; Roy McDonald of Saratoga; James Alesi of Rochester and Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie.
Grisanti, a practicing Catholic who had made a campaign promise last year to oppose gay marriage, said he changed his mind after studying the law and determining gay couples were entitled to the same privileges as “me and my wife.”
The Buffalo News reported that Grisanti had pulled in $50,000 from gay marriage advocates after the vote.