A New York Times story looks at those companies who would be profiteers off of the efforts of the Christianists and Mormons to deprive LGBT Americans of equal marriage rights. These PR mercenaries place making a buck - or a lot of bucks - over integrity and respect for religious freedom as they deal with self-enriching sleaze bags like Maggie Gallagher who is raking in a six figure yearly income disseminating hate and bigotry. Cheap prostitutes have perhaps more integrity in my opinion. Hopefully, this story will help get the names out of these aiders and abettors of bigotry and other businesses who hope to market to the LGBT community and progressive consumers will shun their services. One does need to know one's enemies and their accomplices - and hopefully inflict other costs upon them. Here are some highlights:*
As the political battle over same-sex marriage plays out in state capitals across the country, several California companies have emerged as the go-to players for opponents of the marriages. One of the companies, Mar/Com Services Inc., lists its business address here in San Francisco, a city well known for its large and politically active gay population. When Maine residents opposed to a new law permitting same-sex marriage decided earlier this year to challenge it, they hired Mar/Com to do the production work for the television and radio advertisements. Of the $2.7 million spent to pass the Maine measure, about 75 percent flowed to companies in California, according to campaign disclosure documents.
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Central to this cottage industry is Schubert Flint Public Affairs, a company based in Sacramento that headed the winning campaign for Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage. Frank Schubert, the company’s president, said it was “not like we took the California campaign and photocopied it and took it to Maine, but we took some of the things we learned.” He said same-sex marriage is not “what our firm is devoted to,” but rather “is one area that has been very active in the last couple of years.”
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Jesse Connolly, the manager of the unsuccessful campaign to uphold same-sex marriage in Maine, said the California influence was profound. “I think it’s pretty clear that Frank Schubert and his vendor friends have decided there’s big money to be made in these fights,” Mr. Connolly said in an e-mail message. “It was Schubert on the stage election night being cheered. The consultant from Sacramento.”
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The company that received the most money, according to campaign disclosure statements in Maine, was Mar/Com, whose president, Bill Criswell, appears to also be the president and chief executive of Criswell Associates, a San Francisco advertising and marketing company. . . . Criswell has been strongly criticized by some liberal bloggers in San Francisco who say it is inappropriate for a company based here to be involved in overturning gay rights.
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Mr. Schubert said that his company and his clients write the advertisements, and that Mr. Criswell “executes them as we have scripted and directed.” “He does not do the creative and decide what is in the ads — we do,” Mr. Schubert said. Mr. Criswell did not return phone calls.
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Campaign disclosure documents show payments of nearly $150,000 to a company, Public Policy Strategies, doing business out of a mailbox in Stateline, Nev., on the California border. A corporate filing for Public Policy Strategies in Nevada shows no officers listed for the company except at a rented office in Zurich. Calls to that office were answered by an answering machine, and messages were not returned. . . . Mr. Schubert said Public Policy Strategies was an “East Coast pollster” that wanted to keep its identity secret because companies had been subject to harassment and boycott threats from gay rights advocates for working against same-sex marriage. “I’m not going to blow their cover,” Mr. Schubert said.
As the political battle over same-sex marriage plays out in state capitals across the country, several California companies have emerged as the go-to players for opponents of the marriages. One of the companies, Mar/Com Services Inc., lists its business address here in San Francisco, a city well known for its large and politically active gay population. When Maine residents opposed to a new law permitting same-sex marriage decided earlier this year to challenge it, they hired Mar/Com to do the production work for the television and radio advertisements. Of the $2.7 million spent to pass the Maine measure, about 75 percent flowed to companies in California, according to campaign disclosure documents.
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Central to this cottage industry is Schubert Flint Public Affairs, a company based in Sacramento that headed the winning campaign for Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage. Frank Schubert, the company’s president, said it was “not like we took the California campaign and photocopied it and took it to Maine, but we took some of the things we learned.” He said same-sex marriage is not “what our firm is devoted to,” but rather “is one area that has been very active in the last couple of years.”
*
Jesse Connolly, the manager of the unsuccessful campaign to uphold same-sex marriage in Maine, said the California influence was profound. “I think it’s pretty clear that Frank Schubert and his vendor friends have decided there’s big money to be made in these fights,” Mr. Connolly said in an e-mail message. “It was Schubert on the stage election night being cheered. The consultant from Sacramento.”
*
The company that received the most money, according to campaign disclosure statements in Maine, was Mar/Com, whose president, Bill Criswell, appears to also be the president and chief executive of Criswell Associates, a San Francisco advertising and marketing company. . . . Criswell has been strongly criticized by some liberal bloggers in San Francisco who say it is inappropriate for a company based here to be involved in overturning gay rights.
*
Mr. Schubert said that his company and his clients write the advertisements, and that Mr. Criswell “executes them as we have scripted and directed.” “He does not do the creative and decide what is in the ads — we do,” Mr. Schubert said. Mr. Criswell did not return phone calls.
*
Campaign disclosure documents show payments of nearly $150,000 to a company, Public Policy Strategies, doing business out of a mailbox in Stateline, Nev., on the California border. A corporate filing for Public Policy Strategies in Nevada shows no officers listed for the company except at a rented office in Zurich. Calls to that office were answered by an answering machine, and messages were not returned. . . . Mr. Schubert said Public Policy Strategies was an “East Coast pollster” that wanted to keep its identity secret because companies had been subject to harassment and boycott threats from gay rights advocates for working against same-sex marriage. “I’m not going to blow their cover,” Mr. Schubert said.
One would think that being afraid to have your identity known ought to perhaps tell you something. Sadly, some are willing to put money ahead of decency and integrity.
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