MAINE: NOM Finally Hands Over Donors List and Only SIX Names Are On It

I and many others have long speculated that one reason why the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM") has fought tooth and claw and blatantly violated campaign finance disclosure laws was because did not want it disclosed that rather than being a "broad grass roots movement" it was really a front for a small group of anti-gay extremists.  These suspicions have now been now confirmed in Maine where NOM has been forced to disclose the names of the donors who contributed over $2 million to back NOM's anti-gay campaign.  ONLY SIX donors contributed the money expended. Worse yet for NOM, the vast majority of the money tracks back to a single individual. That's right, SIX donors. And, oh yes, the Knights of Columbus was one of the six donors and spent $140,000 better spent on true charitable works to deprive LGBT individuals their civil legal rights.  It is LONG past time that the K of C lost its tax-exempt status.  Here are highlights from the Bangor Daily News:

The National Organization for Marriage has filed details of its financial activities related to a 2009 effort to repeal Maine’s same-sex marriage law after a more than five-year legal battle over Maine’s campaign finance laws. 

Brian Brown, president and co-founded of the National Organization for Marriage, said by phone Monday that being forced to disclose donors was a “gross injustice” to his organization.

The National Organization for Marriage funneled more than $2 million to a political action committee called Stand for Marriage Maine, which represented about 64 percent of the PAC’s spending on the referendum that repealed a same-sex marriage law enacted by the Legislature and Gov. John Baldacci. Same-sex marriage became law in Maine after voters endorsed it through another referendum in 2012.

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, already has paid a record fine to the state of more than $50,000 in the matter. Wayne said Monday the filing appears on initial inspection to satisfy Maine’s campaign finance reporting requirements.

The donor list includes one Mainer and four out-of-state donors who gave the National Organization for Marriage between $50,000 and $750,000 in individual donations.
— Richard Kurtz of Cape Elizabeth, $50,000 on Aug. 5, 2009.
— John Templeton of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, $300,000 on Oct.1, 2009.
— Terrence Caster of San Diego, California, $300,000 on Oct. 9, 2009.
— Knights of Columbus of New Haven, Connecticut, $140,000 on Sept. 4, 2009.
— Sam Fieler of New York City, $750,000 on July 15, 2009, and $500,000 on Oct. 13, 2009.
— There were an additional $5,279 in smaller contributions that were not itemized on the report.

Like everything else that comes out of NOM - and the mouths of Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher - the claims that NOM is a broad based "grassroots" organization is a lie and utter bullshit.  NOM is a front group for a handful of anti-gay bigots and anti-gay religious organizations like the Mormon Church, K of C, and U.S. Catholic bishops.  When the godly folk's lips are moving, the safest assumption is that they are lying - you will rarely be proved wrong.