Daniel O'Donnell Profiled In The NYT

In advance of today's expected marriage equality victory in the New York Assembly, the New York Times has profiled openly gay lawmaker Daniel O'Donnell, the bill's sponsor, calling him the "tenacious, ingratiating, playful and sometimes prickly leader" of the campaign. An excerpt:

Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell wants desperately to persuade his colleagues to legalize gay marriage. Here is how he has pursued Republican Assemblyman Greg Ball’s vote: He stopped Mr. Ball’s parents while they were visiting the Capitol, and asked them to urge their son to back the measure. He cornered Mr. Ball in a statehouse elevator, and taunted him: vote for same-sex marriage, or you won’t get invited to my engagement party. Mr. O’Donnell has even told Mr. Ball, a square-jawed former Air Force captain, that he was “the best looking guy in the Assembly, and he owed it to the gays to vote yes.” “Did I think that overt flirtation was going to get Greg Ball to vote yes?” Mr. O’Donnell recalled. “Didn’t know. But I was going to try.”

The article goes on to describe how O'Donnell often brings his partner of 28 years to Assembly events, so that fellow legislators "have to see John and I through the prism of a relationship." Read the entire piece.