The publication's article produced some very interesting details, particularly about the National Organization for Marriage's past actions to hide its funding sources:
A campaign finance watchdog group warns that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which is allied to a state anti-gay marriage group, has worked to hide who funded their campaigns in the past.
The Minnesota Family Council (MFC), the state's leading anti-gay marriage group, estimated the cost of their campaign as between $4 and $6 million. If past campaigns in other states are any indicator, a large proportion of that funding will come from out-of-state funders through the National Organization for Marriage. MFC did not return requests for comment.
"NOM looks forward to supporting the campaign and lending our expertise and resources to those of allies in the state," said a press release from the group's president, Brian Brown, issued following last month's vote to put the issue in front of voters in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
NOM did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the organization's plans to raise money. While NOM has litigated in the past to avoid disclosing its donors, evidence occasionally emerges that large portions of its budget seem to come from church-affiliated organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus.
If Minnesota's 2012 campaign will be anything like Maine's 2009 battle over same-sex marriage, much of the money involved could come from out of state, particularly for groups opposing same-sex marriage.
Reports filed with Maine's campaign finance watchdog show that the Maine group leading efforts against same-sex marriage received the lion's share of its donations from large organizations outside of Maine, chiefly from the National Organization for Marriage and the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland.
To quote the words of Mike Dean of Common Cause Minnesota from the article:
"It's going to be a dirty, dirty campaign."
But if so, it will be par for the course for NOM. The organization's pattern is as follows:
- NOM goes to a state to fight against marriage equality.
- Their efforts are successful because of their mysterious finances and the ability to pass along distorted information thanks to their mysterious finances.
- They leave the community in shambles with neighbors angry at neighbors over their positions.
- Lastly, questions are raised regarding NOM's questionable tactics regarding mostly finances.
Let's hope that Minnesota breaks the link in that chain.
Related posts:
National Organization for Marriage's questionable tactics go across six states
Time for NOM to work it's 'gays recruit children' lies in Minnesota
Is the Catholic Church overstepping its bounds in marriage equality fight?
