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H/T Dan and Sue. In Maine today, the National Organization for Marriage filed for special rights to ignore Maine’s campaign finance laws.
The biggest contributor to the group trying to overturn Maine’s gay marriage law is suing the state over its campaign reporting requirements.The state ethics commission voted Oct. 1 to take a closer look at contributions by the National Organization for Marriage after it was accused of circumventing Maine law by not reporting the names of many donors. The group responded with a constitutional challenge filed Wednesday in federal court in Bangor.
Interesting timing, because also on this day in Washington, an unregistered political action committee called The Family PAC has done the same thing.
A political action committee opposed to Washington state’s expanded partnerships for gay couples has sued in federal court, arguing it should be exempt from the state’s campaign finance laws.The Family PAC filed a lawsuit late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. The group has not yet registered with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission. It wants the court to allow it to accept contributions of more than $5,000, and to be exempt from having to report donor’s names.
Truly amazing timing. I’m sure they’re not at all related.
Update:
The people behind The Family PAC have been identified. According to The Seatte Times it’s none other than The Family Policy Institute of Washington, the local Focus on the Family affiliate run by the guy who wants straight senior domestic partners to take one on the chin for good of the theocracy, Joseph Backholm.A Lynnwood-based organization that opposes the state’s domestic partnership law and is working to defeat Referendum 71 has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Tacoma seeking to circumvent campaign contribution limits of $5,000 and to keep secret the names of those who make smaller donations. …The attorney for the Family Policy Institute of Washington, which filed the lawsuit through its newly formed Family PAC late Wednesday, acknowledged that there are substantial contributions in the offing that the campaign wants to accept but can’t because of the limits.
Dominic at SLOG elaborates
So now that the large contribution deadline has passed for everyone else, Backholm’s affiliate of Focus on the Family wants the state to change the rules-so they can flood a bigoted campaign with money-because bigots deserve special rights. Family Policy Institute of Washington (which claims Referendum 71 “threatens every citizen’s freedom to disagree” and says that “discrimination is not only appropriate, it is necessary for survival”) is the same group that poured $200,000 into the Vote Reject R-71 in the final days before the cutoff for large contributions. But they obviously have more. A few days before the deadline, Dave Mortenson, a conservative campaign consultant who filed the PAC funded by FPIW, said, “A bunch of individuals contacted me to see if we could raise some money really quick.” He said, “I am not going to share who I’ve been talking to, but if we do get the money, we will report it.” Are those religious groups, corporations, wealthy donors, I asked? “We are working them all,” Mortenson said. He wouldn’t tell me who those groups were then. And now, if the bigots get their way to keep donations secret, we’ll never know.If they must, the state’s public disclosure commission should challenge this case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Special Rights for Bigots campaign is already going to D.C. to keep petition signers’ names sealed (and I hope that the Supremes only accepted the case to settle the issue on the side of transparency). A state court already decided that donors’ names must remain public. But this new federal case should languish in the court a while; regardless of the outcome, litigation will eat up every day before the election, so they’ll never be able to spend their bigot bucks.
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It gets better!Not only is NOM now suing Maine, but there’s a group called“American Principles in Action” in the lawsuit!
And who are they?
Damned if I know!
Last Minute Mormon Money?Uh Oh, here comes the last minute surge of Mormon money and ad buys. The same thing happened with Utah’s Amendment Three (amending the State Constitution to ban gay and lesbian marriage, civil unions, etc.) campaign in 2004, where nobody knows to this day who donated 170,000 dollars at the last minute to sway the campaign.
Nothing would surprise me when it comes to LDS political operatives and their tactics.
They’re not mormon, they’re CatholicI bet a quick check of phone records would reveal a lot of calls between this office and NOM’s D.C. office, and probably to KOC.
A little bit of digging revealed the businesses in the same building are mostly technology consulting firms, and left-leaning political consulting firms. We won’t learn anything about them by their neighbors. (Though we may learn something FROM their neighbors…)
If APIA is incorporated in D.C., the D.C. COC should have articles of incorporation and a listing of their board of directors. I’ll dig around in Lexis for a list of people with businesses registered at that address.
APIA appears to be the PAC for the American Principles Project, which gives its address as the same listing for APIA. The “about us” link doesn’t work.
Robby George is the group’s founder. He’s a Catholic “legal scholar and activist.” The article links to a page with the leadership, but the page has either been taken down or put behind a log-in protection. The American Papist blogmaster is their communications director.
Here’s their leadership page.
Andresen (yes, Andresen) Blom. That bastard. He’s the former Hawaii Right to Life executive director, and he’s the APP’s executive director.
Lee Condic.
Ellen Barosse.
These all appear to be hardcore Catholics, not Mormon affiliates.
Mom, it might be worth it to see if the Portland Diocese has sent money to people on that Board, or to that address.
So Do they just want their own special rightsor would they be open to the NO on 1 and APPROVE R71 also not having to abide by the limits?
As if this question even needs to be asked.
they’re ignoring the will of the people.according to Kate Riley, the Public Disclosure Act was enacted by 72 percent of voters by initiative in 1973.
There’d be no need to place a call to NOM …These guys are all working out of the same room. That address posted above is NOM’s DC address.
This covers Robby George and his astroturf campaign …… against Kevin Jennings.
Schmuck of the Week: Robert P. George:
http://www.tips-q.com/1456902-…
I’d laugh at the ridiculousness if it weren’t so insidious
On what legal grounds are they suing?The law applies to everyone. Is their only complaint that they have a large donation they can’t accept?
If I remember correctly NOMs argument is they accept donations that are not targeted for any specific campaign so this should exempt them from Maines state law?
Diversionary tactic?I haven’t seen any of the court documents, so I don’t know. What I do know is that in Washington, this is a huge distraction from what we need to be talking about, and that is how repeal of the domestic partnership law will hurt real Washington families. I almost wonder if FPIW is doing this as a diversionary tactic as much as anything. So, in my view, we need to keep tabs on this crazy grab for special rights from NOM and FPIW, but NOT let ourselves get sidetracked from the real story. We’re only 11 days from election day and people are already sending in their ballots.