WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – A dozen political operatives from around the country are in New Jersey running an intense campaign, but there’s no candidate. Their goal is to convince state lawmakers – and residents – that same-sex couples should have the right to marry.

Gay rights advocates are raising money, lobbying state lawmakers and going door to door to drum up support for their cause: legislation that would give same-sex unions the same legal status as marriage.

“This is being run like the most intense political campaign you can imagine,” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality. “This is a tooth-and-nail fight to the death, a 24/7, get-no-sleep political campaign.”

Goldstein is no stranger to politics – he was the campaign manager for Jon Corzine’s successful 2000 U.S. Senate run. He is being aided in his effort by other local and national gay rights groups, including the 650,000-member strong Human Rights Campaign with a $30 million budget. The Human Rights Campaign deployed thousands of workers nationwide earlier this year to help get candidates elected who support gay rights.

Gay rights advocates stepped up their campaign in October when the state Supreme Court said same-sex couples should have access to the same rights and benefits as married couples. But the court stopped short of finding that the couples have a right to marry.

Whether to call the unions marriages, civil unions or something else is up to the Legislature. The court gave lawmakers six months to act.

The deadline prompted Goldstein to contact the Human Rights Campaign for help. Marty Rouse, the organization’s national field director, dispatched three staff members to New Jersey to help them organize a grassroots campaign.

“What we’re focused on is mobilizing a marriage equality constituency through education and mobilization of residents of the Garden State,” Rouse said. “We’re going door to door in neighborhoods, holding town hall meetings and information seminars.”

Key lawmakers in the Democratic majority say they favor letting same-sex couples register in civil unions that would offer all the benefits of marriage but not the title. Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, has said action may be taken by the end of the year.

“There is not a doubt in my mind that New Jersey will win marriage for gay couples, 100 percent marriage and not civil unions, within two years,” Goldstein said. “We’re fighting tooth and nail for marriage equality, although the odds for civil unions, which we don’t want, are a bit stronger in the short run.”

Gay rights advocates have their work cut out for them. Conservative groups in New Jersey recently announced plans to push two measures that would keep same-sex unions from having the same legal status as marriage.

It appears most New Jersey residents also will have to be convinced that same-sex unions should gain the same legal status as marriage. Three recent polls showed that state voters support granting same-sex couples the benefits of marriage but don’t want those unions to be called marriages.

John Tomicki, chair of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, said the issue of same-sex marriage should be left to the public to decide, not the courts or the Legislature.

Goldstein is undeterred. On Dec. 5, gay rights advocates held “40 Holiday Parties in 40 Legislative Districts,” to drum up support. All the parties were the beginning of 10 days of nonstop activism, Goldstein said.

“All politics is local,” he said. “We’re targeting the legislators one by one.”