It turns out Etch-a-Sketch is getting a bad rap from conservatives in his party about being soft on gay rights.
Romney gave $10k to the California Prop 8 campaign to overturn a court ruling finding marriage equality constitutional, but round-aboutly:
...But when Romney eventually made his donation, he did so quietly, and through an unusual channel. Records filed by Romney's Free and Strong America PAC with the Federal Election Commission did not include details of that $10,000 donation. Nor did NOM's public 990 form. In fact, record of the payment was only uncovered Friday when the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign was sent a private IRS filing from NOM via a whistleblower. The Human Rights Campaign shared the filing with The Huffington Post.
Asked for comment, an aide to Romney said that the donation was made through the Alabama chapter of the Free and Strong America PAC. State records confirm this. However, the 990 NOM filed lists the donation as having come from PO Box 79226 in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Romney is far from the only national politician to take advantage of Alabama's lax campaign finance and disclosure laws. Several others have set up PACs in the state, for the purposes of raising money. Alabama does not put a limit on the individual amount that a donor can give to a PAC.
But the secretive nature of the donation raised the eyebrows of Human Rights Campaign officials. Romney, after all, didn't have to send his check to NOM through the Alabama chapter of his PAC.
"It’s clear now that Romney was a major financial donor to Prop. 8," said Fred Sainz, HRC's vice president for communications. "But it’s also clear that his campaign very cleverly hid this contribution in an obscure Alabama PAC."
"His spokesperson said that Romney had financially supported Prop 8 but there’s no disclosure of a contribution to any Prop. 8 effort, personal or through the national or Alabama PAC," Sainz added. "He instead chose to give to NOM, an organization that has a history of shielding its donors. For what other purpose would you contribute $10,000 to NOM three weeks before the election other than Prop 8?"
National Organization for Marriage is notoriously secretive, resorting to lawsuits in state and federal courts to keep its donor lists secret. The group has also been exposed recently for pursuing secret, very expensive, multipronged strategy against marriage equality that includes scouring the country to children of same-sex parents willing to say they are scarred for life on camera; recruiting attractive "non-cognitive elites" (read: cute but dumb) to peddle their message with a smile; and stirring up racial and ethnic animus toward gay Americans. The organization, supported- among others, by at least one SC religious blog that's otherwise wildly anti-Romney, is currently running a strikingly unsuccessful campaign to boycott Starbucks for supporting marriage equality in its home state of Washington, alleging that grande drinkers in Kuala Lumpur will experience distress as part of the Starbucks experience.
Romney gave $10k to the California Prop 8 campaign to overturn a court ruling finding marriage equality constitutional, but round-aboutly:
...But when Romney eventually made his donation, he did so quietly, and through an unusual channel. Records filed by Romney's Free and Strong America PAC with the Federal Election Commission did not include details of that $10,000 donation. Nor did NOM's public 990 form. In fact, record of the payment was only uncovered Friday when the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign was sent a private IRS filing from NOM via a whistleblower. The Human Rights Campaign shared the filing with The Huffington Post.
Asked for comment, an aide to Romney said that the donation was made through the Alabama chapter of the Free and Strong America PAC. State records confirm this. However, the 990 NOM filed lists the donation as having come from PO Box 79226 in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Romney is far from the only national politician to take advantage of Alabama's lax campaign finance and disclosure laws. Several others have set up PACs in the state, for the purposes of raising money. Alabama does not put a limit on the individual amount that a donor can give to a PAC.
But the secretive nature of the donation raised the eyebrows of Human Rights Campaign officials. Romney, after all, didn't have to send his check to NOM through the Alabama chapter of his PAC.
"It’s clear now that Romney was a major financial donor to Prop. 8," said Fred Sainz, HRC's vice president for communications. "But it’s also clear that his campaign very cleverly hid this contribution in an obscure Alabama PAC."
"His spokesperson said that Romney had financially supported Prop 8 but there’s no disclosure of a contribution to any Prop. 8 effort, personal or through the national or Alabama PAC," Sainz added. "He instead chose to give to NOM, an organization that has a history of shielding its donors. For what other purpose would you contribute $10,000 to NOM three weeks before the election other than Prop 8?"
National Organization for Marriage is notoriously secretive, resorting to lawsuits in state and federal courts to keep its donor lists secret. The group has also been exposed recently for pursuing secret, very expensive, multipronged strategy against marriage equality that includes scouring the country to children of same-sex parents willing to say they are scarred for life on camera; recruiting attractive "non-cognitive elites" (read: cute but dumb) to peddle their message with a smile; and stirring up racial and ethnic animus toward gay Americans. The organization, supported- among others, by at least one SC religious blog that's otherwise wildly anti-Romney, is currently running a strikingly unsuccessful campaign to boycott Starbucks for supporting marriage equality in its home state of Washington, alleging that grande drinkers in Kuala Lumpur will experience distress as part of the Starbucks experience.
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