"It is time for people to wake up and smell the milestone," he told reporters before the session began. "If you would've told me two years ago that the state Legislature, under Gov. Christie, was poised to pass a marriage equality bill, I would've told you you were nuts. We can't even keep up with our own predictions."
Lawmakers have until the end of the legislative session, in January 2014, to try to wrangle the two-thirds vote needed in the two Democratic-led chambers to override the veto.
Goldstein and other gay-marriage supporters were bullish Monday that they'd find the votes.
"I'm telling you, we can override, we will override," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) said at a news conference following the vote. "We'll get there. This is only the beginning."
Overriding a Christie veto could be tougher in the 80-member Assembly, where Democratic sources said the bill may pass by only a few votes. Democrats, who have 48 seats there, would need to muster 54 votes to override a gubernatorial veto.
The Senate vote came the same day that the governor of Washington state signed a gay-marriage bill into law, making it the seventh state, along with the District of Columbia, to permit same-sex marriage.
New York approved same-sex marriage last summer, and Republican state lawmakers there who crossed the aisle to support the measure have received a boost in donations from the gay community.
Goldstein said that GOP lawmakers in New Jersey could expect similar support if they helped pass gay marriage.
"You should expect that Garden State Equality and our national allies will play a very vigorous role in 2013," he said.
On Monday, two Republicans voted in favor of gay marriage, including Sen. Diane Allen of Burlington County, while two Democrats voted against it.
A majority of New Jerseyans support gay marriage: 54 percent, according to a recent poll.
