Money | Politics

Huge sums of money ($83 million!) flowed on both sides of Prop 8 during the summer and fall of 2008. Those who won the "Yes" vote, and who ponied up to run expensive television ads which perpetrated outright lies about lesbian and gay people, constitute a Hall of Shame.  Where did all the H8 money come from? Now the supporters of Prop 8 have filed a federal law suit to block the release of contributors' personal information, because, they claim, some of them have been harrassed since the election. Paul Varnell has a great analysis/opinion article at 365Gay:Opinion, "Should there be secret political contributions?" (Varnell writes frequently for the Independent Gay Forum.)  What are the issues? See: Donors Poured $83M into Prop 8 Campaigns

Also see:  Follow the Legal Issues

Where did the money come from?

Also on this page:  Where are the Mormons?  |  Can Churches Legally Take a Position on Political Issues?

Major contributors to the Yes on 8 side came from:

• Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO (James Dobson):  $593,967
• Knights of Columbus Headquarters, New Haven, CT:  $1,400,000
• Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Fieldstead and Co., Irvine : $1,395,000

The website Californians Against Hate has a "Dishonor Roll" (see graphic at right) of the top donors to the Yes on 8 campaign.  The 26-page document, released in September 2008, reads like a Who's Who of right-wing leaders, billionaires and oil-and-war profiteers.

The Los Angeles Times website has a useful search box for data from the Secretary of State's office.  Data was last updated November 6, 2008.  Click here, then select "Follow the Money:  Track Contributors>>". Other useful information is found at this site, including an interative map.

According to this site (now outdated!):

Geography:  According to the contributions map at the Times website above, major money flowed out of Orange County ($6,429,881) and San Diego County ($3,469,823), totalling $9,899,704 or 27% of the total Yes contributions.

What does all this mean?  Incredible sums flowed on both sides, but it is hard to justify that flow of cash. Clearly, this belongs in the same discussion with Campaign Finance Reform, because money buys votes whether they are well-informed or not.  Money coupled wiht misleading information buys votes.  Money manipulates votes because it makes the advertising and distribution of misleading and false information so easy.  The fact that both sides spent nearly-equal gargantuan sums does not cancel out this huge problem.  Money corrupts democracy, and granting or withholding basic civil rights on the basis of how much money can be raised to manipulate votes is ethically wrong.

In the aftermath and the assessment of the Proposition 8 campaign, California needs to ask itself how to stop the constant stream of ballot-box budgeting and the manipulation of law, rights and good order through the initative and proposition process.  For discussion:  How about making it unlawful to pay people to gather signatures?  If signatures on petitions for an initiative or proposition were gathered only by volunteers, it would take this democratic procedure out of the hands of big and corrupting money and return it to ordinary citizens.  According to Fred Karger on the Huffington Post, the National Organization for Marriage based in rinceton, NJ gave $941,000 to the Yes side, "with the bulk of their money coming in the first 6 months of this year. Their funds were used to hire hundreds of professional signature gatherers in order to qualify their constitutional initiative for the November 4th ballot."

But don't hold your breath waiting for reform.  Since both sides of every issue rely on paying signature gatherers, nobody is likely to propose taking the money out of the machinery.

Where are the  in this List?

In the donors list (L.A. Times website, above), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints apparently only contributed about $5,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign.  But a Los Angeles Times story October 9, 2008, which included an Associated Press story, suggests that the Mormons invested enormous resources and efforts in the Yes on 8 campaign.  A quick glance at the Preserving Marriage web site, which embeds numerous You Tube videos (giving LDS answers to misleading questions) had to be paid for somehow.

Churches are required by fair political practices law to report time, expenses, even the use of church property, in the waging of political battles, but all of this seems mysteriously opaque on the Mormon front.  This mystery has prompted Fred Karger, who founded Californians Against Hate, to ask for an investigation.

Take a Position on Political Issues and Spend Money Like This?

Dozens of churches are listed in the above database as having made relatively minor contributions (one San Diego church put up about $25,000).  Doubtless much more money was raised through churches, although the church name is not listed as the donor. But to answer the question:

Yes we can.  There is a lot of confusion about this, but both sides know what the laws say, and the conservative churches (the "religious reich") have used it to their advantage more effectively.  There would have been no "culture war" if conservative groups, churches and organizations did not speak out on their views of public policy issues.  (Remember the Moral Majority?)

Churches are normally tax exempt under Federal Internal Revenue Code section 501.c.3.  In order to have this tax exempt staus, the IRS requires that church do not take partisan stands -- that is, they cannot endorse candidates of a particular party for elective office.

Church may, however, take and publicize their position with regard to matters of public policy and legislation. In this activity, churches are considered to be "lobbying" and the laws restrict the amount of money and effort, including in-kind contributions, which churches can devote to lobbying activity.  The dollar amount may not be substantial, and that is ofen considered to be 5% or less of that church organization's annual revenues.

It is likely that watchdog groups, inclduing Californians Against Hate, will closely monitor the reported spending of large religious organizations on Proposition 8, including the Mormon church, the Catholic Church, etc.

Full Disclosure:  Hollywood Lutheran Church endorsed the "No on Proposition 8" campaign in September 2008, but has not expended funds to do so.  This web site is not paid for by Hollywood Lutheran Church.

We Should Have Seen This Coming

In August, 2008 this article appeared in the S. F. Chronicle about big donors on both sides of the argument.

Out-of-state money floods to Prop. 8

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, July 28, 2008

(07-27) 19:14 PDT -- When Bruce Bastian of Utah stood up Saturday night at a San Francisco dinner and wrote a $1 million check for the campaign against Proposition 8, he made it clearer than ever that November's ballot fight over a ban on same-sex marriage won't be a California-only affair.

Supporters of the effort to ban same-sex marriage already have taken in more than $1.2 million from out-of-state contributors for the fall campaign. And even before Bastian, a co-founder of the WordPerfect software company, opened his checkbook, gay and lesbian rights groups and their supporters from around the country had put more than $1.3 million into the fight against the ballot initiative.

"This is a campaign that's important to the entire country, not just California," said Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, sponsor of the fundraising dinner that brought more than 750 people to the St. Francis Hotel on Saturday. "The result will have effects across the United States."

Those national concerns are echoed from the backers of the same-sex marriage ban.

When the state Supreme Court overturned Proposition 22's ban on same-sex unions, it opened the way for "nationwide legal chaos" and allowed gay rights groups "to force their radical redefinition of marriage upon the nation," according to a statement from the California Family Council, one of the supporters of Prop. 8.

The outside money is arriving in supersized chunks. Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs group headed by James Dobson, has given more than $400,000 to the Prop. 8 campaign. The American Family Association, out of Tupelo, Miss., has contributed $500,000. The Knights of Columbus, a national Catholic men's organization headquartered in New Haven, Conn., has put $250,000 into the campaign.

The opponents also have cast a national net for donors. The Human Rights Campaign, which works for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights out of its Washington headquarters, has raised more than $570,000 for the fight against Prop. 8. Another Washington group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, has given $200,000. David Maltz, a Cleveland businessman, has donated $500,000 to the anti-Prop. 8 effort.

With more than three months to go before election day, the outside money on both sides of the ballot battle will just keep coming.

Concerns about that money is what persuaded Bastian to get involved.

Bastian grew up in a conservative, Mormon family in Twin Falls, Idaho. He went on a mission for the church and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Mormon-sponsored Brigham Young University. But he has been at odds with the church's view on homosexuality since coming out as a gay man.

The Mormon church has spoken strongly in favor of Prop. 8. In a June 20 letter, the church's top leaders called on California Mormons to "do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time."

That means something, Bastian said at Saturday night's dinner.

"One thing I learned as a Mormon was that preaching costs money," Bastian said. "The Mormons will raise a lot of money to support Proposition 8 in November."

Bastian, who lives in Orem, Utah, felt he had to level the financial playing field.

"You can't change people's minds. They have to change them for themselves," he said. "If people are shown the truth and have fear taken out of the equation, I believe they will stand up for what's good and fair."

Until the mid-1990s, Bastian was chairman of WordPerfect, a software company he founded with Alan Ashton, his faculty adviser, after he graduated from BYU. Since merging the company with Novell in 1994, he's spent much of his time working with arts groups in Utah and for gay rights.

He decided to make his $1 million contribution in the middle of the campaign dinner as a none-too-subtle challenge to others to step up and contribute to the anti-Prop. 8 effort.

"I know there are people waiting in the wings and I wanted to nudge them, to inspire them," he said.

Bastian has worked closely with the Human Rights Campaign, raising money for a number of its causes, said Joe Solmonese, president of the group. He even has an annual fundraiser for the group at his home in Orem, which Bastian described as the reddest of red counties, with a higher percentage of Mormons than Salt Lake City.

"He's always been there to help, even though he lives in what's probably going to be the last state in America to benefit from marriage equality," Solmonese said.

E-mail John Wildermuth at jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/28/BA7E12038R.DTL.