Thousand role in to defeat marriage in Maine

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Hundreds of thousands pour in for campaign to repeal gay marriage law
By Rebekah Metzler, Staff Writer
Published: Jul 16, 2009 12:00 am
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LEWISTON — The group hoping to overturn Maine's same-sex marriage law has out-raised the measure's proponents by more than two to one, according to state campaign reports filed Wednesday.

Stand for Maine Marriage, the group leading the effort for repeal, raised a total of about $343,000 from nine donors as of July 5, the end of the reporting period.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland contributed $100,000, the Knights of Columbus of Washington, D.C., chipped in $50,000 and Focus on the Family, a Christian group based in Colorado Springs, Colo., donated $31,000 to the political action committee seeking to repeal the gay marriage law.

Nearly half of the group's fundraising, $160,000, came from the National Organization for Marriage, a New Jersey-based group established in 2007 "in response to the growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures," according to its Web site.

The campaign finance report also shows four Maine citizens contributed a total of $400 to the cause.

Maine Freedom to Marry, the group campaigning to maintain the law, raised a total of about $138,000 from more than 350 donors during the same period, according to a release.

Donations from Mainers totaled about $80,000, with the remaining $58,000 coming from out of state, the release said. A spokesman for the group said it expected to file its official report with the state sometime on Wednesday, the state's deadline for the filing, but were being held up by technical difficulties. The updated report had not been posted on the state's Web site by 9 p.m.

The campaign focusing on gay marriage law has steadily progressed since the Legislature enacted and Gov. John Baldacci signed the legislation earlier this year. Petition gatherers recently submitted tens of thousands of signatures to the Maine Secretary of State's office in hopes of successfully certifying 55,087 of them, which would allow a repeal question to appear on the ballot this fall for judgment by Maine voters.

Marc Mutty, on leave from his job with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and chairman of the Stand for Maine Marriage PAC, said he was happy with the fundraising efforts so far, but added that the campaign had just begun.

"Most of our emphasis has been on collecting signatures, of course, but we're on the wind-down stage of that now and we're entering the next stage, which will be spending a lot of time actually putting the plan together and moving from there," he said.

The group leading efforts to keep the law is pleased with its positioning going into the next leg of the campaign.

"We're in a good spot to start; we always knew we would be out-raised, but I am really happy with where this report is," said Jesse Connolly, the campaign manager for Maine Freedom to Marry. He said he was particularly excited about the number of individual donors, both from Maine and away, who have contributed so far.

"You are also going to see consistently us being able to grow that donor base," Connolly said.

With about four months remaining before a potential vote, Mainers can expect to face a blitz of advertisements and calls, not to mention continued pleas for monetary contributions, from both sides.

Despite raising more than $300,000 in about a month, Stand for Maine Marriage had about $50,000 in cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, according to state records. The records also show more than $140,000 in unpaid obligations for the group.

Most of the spending, nearly $200,000, went to a national signature-gathering firm to expedite the petition process. More than $40,000 has been spent on campaign consultants, including the firm that worked successfully to overturn a similar law in California last year. Other money has been spent on campaign literature and office space, which has been rented on Route 1 in Yarmouth, according to the reports.