BLOOMBERG'S OPPONENTS ALSO FACE TEST OVER GAY MARRIAGE: From the New York Times

All eyes were on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg last week after a state judge made gay marriage legal in New York City--a ruling that put Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican mayor of an overwhelmingly Democratic city, in a particularly tight spot.

But the judge's decision has raised challenges for some of Mr. Bloomberg's Democratic competitors, too, because beneath the surface of New York's supposedly liberal politics lie large constituencies of socially conservative voters.

As Democratic primary candidates set out to divvy up blocks of support to win their party's nomination, some are bumping up against pockets of opposition among religious groups and others that could make their coalition-building more difficult this year, political analysts and religious leaders said.

Those pockets are most potentially nettlesome for two of the four candidates, political analysts and religious leaders say: Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president; and Representative Anthony D. Weiner, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

They were among four potential Democratic candidates who voiced support for Judge Doris Ling-Cohan's decision making gay marriage legal--a decision Mr. Bloomberg appealed while expressing personal support for same-sex marriage.

More so than the other two candidates--Gifford Miller, and C. Virginia Fields--Mr. Ferrer and Mr. Weiner are counting on bases that include a sizable portion of voters who are generally not known to be supportive of gay marriage: religious Latinos for Mr. Ferrer; and white ethnic, social conservatives who live in the boroughs outside Manhattan for Mr. Weiner.

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posted by Eve at 11:59 PM VOTE

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