That state’s Supreme Court ordered the organization to turn over part of its donor list: people who contributed to ban unnatural marriage in Maine.
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“We did not do anything wrong or in violation of the law”, he said.
NOM originally fought the ethics commission’s subpoenas in state court, then brought a federal lawsuit fighting the state requirements on constitutional grounds.
The National Organization for Marriage tried to hide the fact that only one Maine donor joined its campaign to take away marriage rights, and it’s good that it finally has been forced to come clean. In reality, most of the work was done by NOM, over the heads of the Maine campaign leaders. The August. 4 decision essentially denied that request and suggested that the National Organization for Marriage’s argument was not strong in the overall case.
Maine voters returned to the ballot box to legalize same-sex marriage in 2012. The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, donated $140,000.
The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices ruled previous year that NOM broke the law by not registering as a ballot question committee and not filing campaign finance reports despite playing a central role in the referendum.
The National Organization for Marriage, which has been arguing that Maine’s campaign finance law should not apply to the disclosure of national-level donors, has already paid a record fine to the state of more than $50,000 in the matter. The largest Maine contributor to NOM was Richard Kurtz, a retiree from Cape Elizabeth.
Just six names were on the list in total.
According to the Portland Press-Herald, NOM shouldered almost two-thirds of the total cost of the 2009 referendum campaign, which successfully overturned the marriage equality law. “We do our best to educate the different groups on what the laws are, what they have to disclose and majority seem to understand their responsibilities and fulfill them”.
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But while Brown is convinced the tactic will backfire and that his group’s supporters will stick with them, he’s concerned about a bigger issue.
