Talk to just about any top Illinois Republican these days off the record, and they’ll freely admit they want the state bill legalizing gay marriage passed as soon as possible.

It’s not that they’re necessarily in favor of gay marriage, mind you. Many are publicly and privately opposed. Some do support it, even though they don’t feel they can vote for it because it might destroy their careers in the next GOP primary.

The reason so many Republicans would like to see the bill passed is because they know that with the huge, new Democratic majorities in both state legislative chambers, that it’s eventually going to pass anyway, and they want to get this issue out of the way and behind them as soon as possible. The issue is trending hard against the GOP’s historical opposition, and they want the thing off the table before it starts to hurt them.