The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) on Monday filed a report identifying the sources of the $2
million it gave to the 2009 people's veto campaign that repealed a
gay marriage law approved by Maine lawmakers.
The campaign was run by the Maine-based
political action committee Stand for Marriage Maine.
Seven donors gave the money to NOM,
according to its filing.
NOM has argued for years that it
donated the money to the committee from a general fund and as such
was not obligated to release the names.
The Maine Commission on Governmental
Ethics and Election Practices disagreed, imposing last year a record
$50,250 fine against NOM for violating the state's donor disclosure
laws.
Three weeks ago, the Maine Supreme
Court refused NOM's request to block the board's ruling ordering NOM
to comply with the law.
According to the Portland
Press Herald, the list includes one person from Maine:
Richard Kurtz of Cape Elizabeth. He gave $50,000 to NOM.
But NOM's largest donor in 2009 was
Sean Fieler, who gave $1.25 million to NOM. Fieler is a hedge fund
manager who runs Equinox Partners and the Kuroto Fund.
(Related: Conservative
megadonor Sean Fieler financed over half of NOM's Maine anti-gay
campaign.)
Other donors include John Templeton of
Pennsylvania, who gave $300,000, Terrence Caster of San Diego
($300,000), and the Knights of Columbus ($140,000), all of whom also
gave money to NOM in 2008 to support passage of Proposition 8, the
California ballot initiative that rolled back a California Supreme
Court ruling which said that gay and lesbian couples have the right
to marry in the state. The amendment was struck down in 2013.