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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Homo 'Mo Money

Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 10:59 AM

The organization running anti-gay Referendum 71 has reported its financial records to the state Public Disclosure Commission. But there ain’t much ammunition in the war chest—at least not yet. Protect Marriage Washington posted only $2,072.00 in contributions as of last Friday.

(Every other campaign running a ballot measure has raised considerably more, ranging from Referendum 72 (which concerns cities annexing land), which has raised $4,032.85, up to Tim Eyman’s most recent initiative (which caps state spending on terrible wastes like schools, parks and cops), which has raised $605,531.37.)

But that’s not to say bigots behind Referendum 71 aren’t raising money. Faith and Freedom president Gary Randall—who has a rich history of fundraising for his own organizations and paying himself a handsome salary—has reported more contributions to Randall's own organization than the group officially running the referendum. Faith and Freedom PAC's online referendum push has raised $5,364.51. The group has spent $1,553.51; of that, $1,119 has been spent on setting up a website for “internet promotion.”

The group has 44 days left to gather 120,000 signatures to make the ballot. There’s still time—as happened in California with Prop 8—for a last-minute funding to push the referendum through.

Comments (7) RSS

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Sure wish there was an iPhone app that showed the physical street address of every known person who gave money to these people.

After all, it's a matter of public record.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 11, 2009 at 11:16 AM

136 full petition sheets a day to get just 120,000, but that would be insufficient. Even Eyman goes for an extra 25% of signatures, so that's many more.

Ref 65 went to the churches under the same threats (protect children, protect free speech, they're going to publish your names so be brave), but came back with an inadequate number of signatures.

And really, do you think washingtonians want to sign something coated in fine print? The more complicated the petition, the less likely it is to be signed, regardless of its purported nobility.

Finally, the Secretary of State can reject the petitions outright for about a billion reasons relating to wording. For example, if someone can make the reasonable argument that the lies about this being marriage are clearly contrary to the summary or wording the SecSta provided, then they may be compelled to avoid a battle on the matter.

Then again, Randall could be skimming enough to completely derail this thing.

Posted by Baconcat on June 11, 2009 at 11:18 AM

You girls should relax;
you've got this one wrapped up.

Make plans for Domestic Partnership Ceremonies.
Send out invitations.

You're as good as hitched already!

Posted by That's What California Thought! hahahahaha on June 11, 2009 at 11:34 AM

If even one person was asked to sign a copy of the initiative that did not include the full prepared text, the initiative would be null and void, especially if it was taped together after the fact.

Kind of like how signing the end of a full page as Mickey Mouse, 123 Disney Lane, Imaginary, WA would invalidate that page of signatures.

Hopefully nobody will do anything like that.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM

test

Posted by Queer L on June 11, 2009 at 1:05 PM

@4 adding fake names to the petition would help Randall & Stickney. Since the Secretary of State only checks about 3% of signatures, chances are that fakes ill not be noticed and only add to the 120,577 total he's trying to reach. Let's let them fail all on their own.

Posted by Queer L on June 11, 2009 at 1:06 PM