UPDATED
Jeremy Hooper at Good As You has a great series of posts breaking down "Yes on 1"'s largest donor, the National Organization for Marriage…
Friday was a deadline to report contributions in the Maine marriage battle and groups on both sides turned in numbers. Protect Maine Equality, the group fighting to keep Maine's marriage equality law, raised $1.5 million more than the other side, and had many more donors — more than 20,000, in fact.
The AP reports: "NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality said in its campaign finance report
to the state that it has raised $4 million in its campaign to keep
Maine's same-sex marriage law on the books. That compares to the $2.5
million raised by Stand for Marriage Maine, which forced the people's
veto vote through a petition drive. Despite the fundraising advantage, NO on 1 was taking nothing for granted, said campaign manager Jesse Connolly. 'We know this is going to be a razor-thin election,' Connolly said. NO
on 1's report to the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election
Practices showed multiple pages of donations in the $50-$1,000 range,
with exceptions from some individuals, including Donald Sussman of
Portland at $300,000."
The bulk of donations on the anti-gay side came from New Jersey-based NOM and the Catholic Church:
"On the other side, the National
Organization for Marriage was by far the biggest contributor to Stand
for Marriage Maine's political action committee, with $1.1 million
during the latest reporting period. The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Portland gave another $152,600. Throughout the campaign, the
Princeton, N.J.-based NOM has donated a total of $1.5 million while the
diocese has kicked in $550,000, which includes money from out-of-state
dioceses and individual donors."
Some further breakdown of the anti-gay side here.
Protect Maine Equality still anticipates a very tight race. You can help them out HERE.