Update on Maine: NOM Sues Over Reporting Requirements

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is suing Maine over its reporting requirements, the Bangor Daily News reports:

"Earlier this month, the Maine Ethics Commission directed staff to determine whether NOM was skirting campaign finance laws in order to avoid disclosing the identities of contributors.

Now, the organization has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bangor alleging that Maine’s financial reporting requirements are unconstitutional. The lawsuit seeks a court injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing a law that NOM officials claim is being used to harass and intimidate opponents of gay marriage. 'The reporting requirements become onerous and burdensome, especially when you are working in several states, and are an infringement of free speech,' said Brian Brown, NOM’s executive director.

Ethics Commission officials declined to comment on the specific case but defended the law, which requires organizations soliciting more than $5,000 for a ballot question campaign to file financial disclosure reports with the state."

Nate Silver reports on an email he received from NOM featuring the group's "talking points" which he says "run from the literally incoherent to the sublimely unpersuasive, with [another] somewhere in between."

Silver writes:

So, paraphrasing somewhat, the arguments that the Yes on 1 campaign seems to be making are as follows:

1.
The new law won't make gay marriage equal to straight marriage.
Instead, it will create a new kind of marriage in which gay people and
straight people are equal.

2. Although we may not have proven any
connection between gay marriage and public education, our opponents
haven't disproven the connection, and it's their fault that the subject
came up.

3. If gay marriage is upheld, then marriage will exist solely to make people happy.

Earlier this week, he posted a new analysis of marriage equality's chances in Maine, based on updated polling. He says turnout is the key issue: "A couple of weeks ago, I gave the marriage ban 3:1 odds against passing. I might lower that slightly to about 5:2 given the PPP poll, but the fundamentals remain fairly good for proponents of marriage equity. If the marriage ban passes, the pro-gay marriage side is really going to need to rethink its messaging strategy."

The race in Maine is still very close. You can help Protect Maine Equality HERE.