Here’s Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos telling reporters at the Log Cabin Republicans fundraiser in Manhattan last night that he would “recommend” to his conference that the same-sex marriage bill return to the floor for a vote next year if the GOP manages to regain control of the chamber.

“If we’re in the majority, my recommendation to the conference would be that we let it come up for a vote again,” the Nassau County Republican said.

“Things change every year. And who knows? But again, it’s a critically important issue…I think the whole attitude from Albany that whoever’s in the majority would have to pass something, or you don’t let it out, those days have changed.”

This is interesting, particularly since Democratic Senate Conference Leader John Sampson refused during a CapTon interview back in August to commit to bringing the marriage bill back up for a vote. His spokesman swiftly followed up to insist Sampson “will not stop working” until gay marriage “becomes a reality in New York”, but there was still no firm pledge of when that would happen.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo has said gay marriage would be a “priority” during his first year, if he’s elected. The LGBT community had some doubts about Cuomo prior to the whole Carl Paladino anti-gay statements mess, which likely served to get a lot of doubters off the fence and into the AG’s camp.

Skelos said he remains personally opposed to gay marriage and did not promise that the bill would pass. Recall that last year the entire 30-member GOP conference voted “no”, joining with eight Democrats, which led to the measure’s demise.

Advocates insisted there were as many as four “yes” votes on the Republican side of the aisle, but even if there had been, it wouldn’t have been sufficient to counter the Democratic nos – some of which surprised LGBT donors, who spent more than $1 million helping to flip the chamber into Democratic hands in 2008.

Skelos said he would again tell members to vote their “conscience”, which is the same thing he said last year.

Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Ross Levi released a statement last night, calling Skelos’ comments “encouraging news,” but added:

“We welcome allies of all political stripes, even if the last time it came up for a vote, the Senate Republicans were unable to muster a single vote in favor of allowing loving, committed same-sex couples to legally marry in our own state.”

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