Mainers United for Marriage, the group
working for passage of a ballot question which would legalize gay
marriage in Maine, announced Thursday that its fundraising has passed
the $1 million mark.
According to the Bangor
Daily News, the campaign also announced that a majority (64%)
of its donations have come from inside the state and that its
volunteers have spoken to 10,000 voters on the issue.
“The polling has only gone one way on
this issue, and it continues to go up,” Matt McTighe, campaign
manager for Mainers United for Marriage, told reporters at a news
conference. “It's that level of support that we're seeing every
day when we're out talking to our neighbors.”
A poll
of 506 likely voters released last week found that 55 percent of
voters say they would support a law which would permit gay couples to
marry and “protects religious freedom” by not requiring clergy to
perform such marriages.
The campaign working to defeat the
measure, Protect Marriage Maine, had raised about $11,000 in cash by
May 29. But that number does not include the group's ambitious
Father's
Day fundraising in which churches offered a special plate
offering to support the campaign.
Marriage equality supporters are
returning the issue to the ballot box after voters in 2009 narrowly
repealed a marriage law approved by lawmakers with a “people's
veto,” known as Question 1. If approved, Maine would become the
first state to legalize such unions with a popular vote.