Link to: Part One and Part Two

On Friday, the financial reports for the Yes on 1 and No on 1 campaigns were released. As you may recall, the quarterly reports released earlier this month, showing how much money each side had raised this year, (through the end of September) showed that the No on 1 campaign had raised $2.7 million while the Yes on 1 campaign had less than half of that at $1.1 million. As expected, Stand for Marriage Maine (Yes on 1) sent out desperate pleas for generous donations. And, as expected, the usual suspects answered. Between October 1 and October 20th, Stand for Marriage Maine received $1.4 million in donations.

But here’s the thing: $1.1 million of that, nearly 80% of the total, came from ONE group- The National Organization for Marriage. Over the entire campaign, NOM has supplied nearly 65% of ALL contributions to SFMM.

In comparison, Protect Maine Equality raised $1.3 million during this reporting period. They’re still ahead, now having raised a total of  $4 million, with SFMM’s total at $2.5 million. Here are some other interesting financial facts.

* SFMM’s second most generous contributor was the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, which gave over $167,000. (And remember, they’re still closing churches.)

* Focus on the Family gave $15,000.

* Over 22,000 people have donated to No on 1. The other side…only 710 donations. (Me thinks this says a TON!)

* During this reporting period, No on 1 received 4,722 contributions. Yes on 1 had 310.

* 90% of SFMM’s contributions for this reporting period came from two religious groups- NOM and the Catholic Diocese of Portland.

I’ll end this by adding, amongst all these facts, a lie. It comes from Stand for Marriage Maine’s website.

 The People's Veto of Gay Marriage - Question 1 - needs your financial  contribution. Your support will help us stand up to the vast network of wealthy  homosexuals with seemingly unlimited resources from places like Hollywood,  New York and Massachusetts. Washington, D.C.'s largest national lesbian, gay,  bisexual and transgender civil rights organization has already pledged to spend as  much as $5 million to try to defeat us.

Did you spy, with your little eye, the very, very expensive lie?

No LGBT organization has pledged to give $5 million to No on 1. They are most likely referring to the Human Rights Campaign, yet…HRC has only contributed $140,000 to the campaign. Not even anywhere close to $5 million.

Desperation, thy name is Stand for Marriage Maine.

~ Samantha
 

Note: The No on 1 numbers came from the press release that the campaign e-mailed to its supporters. When I get an online link to the information, I will edit it into the post.