The New York Times‘s City Room blog has a fascinating account of how close-run the New York same-sex marriage vote was:

Until the end, when 33 state senators had cast their votes on Friday night, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo privately feared that his bill to legalize same-sex marriage would fail.

A few days before, it nearly did.

By Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo had received separate assurances of support from two crucial Republicans, Mark Grisanti of Buffalo and Stephen M. Saland of Poughkeepsie, either of whose endorsement could secure passage of the historic legislation.

But neither man wanted to be the decisive 32nd vote.

The report says, “”The governor settled on a strategy: he informed both that another unnamed Republican would cast a yes vote, meaning that neither Mr. Grisanti nor Mr. Saland would technically be No. 32.” The stories on the swing votes are worth reading.