With the Illinois General Assembly returning this week from recess, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) reiterated its pledge to spend $250,000 defeating Republican legislators who vote in support of marriage redefinition legislation in Illinois, just like NOM successfully did in New York.

“Any Republican in Illinois who betrays the cause of marriage will be casting a career-ending vote and will be held accountable to their constituents,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “We will spend whatever it takes—hundreds of thousands of dollars if necessary—to remove them from office, just as we did three of the four turncoat Republican state Senators in New York who were responsible for gay ‘marriage’ passing there. We will not hesitate to support pro-family Democrats to replace them, as our record in New York proves.”

In New York state, same-sex “marriage: narrowly passed the state senate after four Republicans and two Democrats changed their votes in response to promises of campaign cash from gay marriage activists. NOM targeted all seven for defeat, and was successful in removing five of them, replacing them in 2012 with pro-family Senators. As numerous media have reported, including the New York Times, three of the four Republicans were removed from office despite promises by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and gay-rights advocates to do everything in their power to protect them against political retribution. (“Costly Toll for Republicans Who Voted for Gay Marriage“).

In addition to supporting challengers to the four Republicans, NOM also supported pro-family Democrats, helping to re-elect Senator Ruben Diaz and electing a pro-marriage Democrat to unseat Senator Shirley Huntley in the Democratic primary. “Marriage is not a partisan issue,” Brown said. “We will stand with pro-family legislators regardless of party affiliation when they stand up for true marriage.”