A new trend seems to be emerging in Democratic politics. While Democrats are on target to win additional Governorships and possibly a few Senate seats in 2010, some of the old guard establishment candidates are seeing their polls numbers lagging in their re-election campaigns. And they are turning to a tactic that would have been considered political suicide just five years ago–they are coming out for gay marriage.

Just a few days ago, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, trailing 45%-39% in this latest poll to his Republican challenger Rob Simmons in a race for Dodd’s Senate seat,  threw his hat into the equality ring.

My young daughters are growing up in a different reality than I did. Our family knows many same-sex couples – our neighbors in Connecticut, members of my staff, parents of their schoolmates. Some are now married because the Connecticut Supreme Court and our state legislature have made same-sex marriage legal in our state.

But to my daughters, these couples are married simply because they love each other and want to build a life together. That’s what we’ve taught them. The things that make those families different from their own pale in comparison to the commitments that bind those couples together.

And, really, that’s what marriage should be. It’s about rights and responsibilities and, most of all, love.

I believe that, when my daughters grow up, barriers to marriage equality for same-sex couples will seem as archaic, and as unfair, as the laws we once had against inter-racial marriage.

And I want them to know that, even if he was a little late, their dad came down on the right side of history.

Also trailing in his re-election bid, Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine, behind ten points to his Republican counterpart Chris Christie,  pledged his full support to gay marriage as well.

Gov. Corzine has made “marriage equality” for gays and lesbians a prominent piece of his reelection campaign, taking another step in his conversion on the issue and encouraging gay-rights advocates who hope to see same-sex marriage approved in New Jersey this year.

In public speeches and private appearances, Corzine, who as recently as 2006 said he believed marriage should be between a man and a woman, has touted his support of same-sex marriage.

In raising the issue, he has tried to draw a bright-line divide with his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, who has said he would veto a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed.

Now, this could be a coincidence, but with support for gay marriage or civil unions growing by the day–at least in the Northeast–and gay fundraisers threatening to abandon the Democratic Party over their apparent apathy towards gay rights, politicians might be realizing they have no choice but to do the right thing.

So the question is who’s next?

My money is on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the only incumbent with worse numbers than Dodd and Corzine. Reid sports a whopping 34% favorability rating in his home state of Nevada. And just to be clear, that is five points lower than his Republican counterpart Senator John Ensign, who just admitted to an affair with his married staffer.

Unfortunately Reid is, as former Post columnist Dan Froomkin put it, “a spineless embarrassment,” who also has to deal with this guy, so no one should hold their breath. But if there’s one thing you can count on Harry Reid for, it’s a timely flip flop.