Playing the shell game to put anti-gay donations into your pocket

[BR_Parkway]

Not just Maggie Gallagher and her incredible salary taking 42% of her Institute for Marriage donations.

Here's a great example of how the Right sets up a target, then fundraises against it - as a profitable industry!

For months, Oregonian Gary Randall has been promoting an anti-domestic partnership referendum in Washington State, then directing his donors to give to one of his Oregon-based organizations, not to the Washington-registered political action committee (PAC) he says is already dedicated to the referendum effort.

On Monday, May 4th, Gary's Washington operative Larry Stickney filed the promised referendum (Ref 71) calling for the repeal of the soon-to-be-signed Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009 (SB 5688). The bill will make registered domestic partnerships fully "separate but equal" to civil marriage at the state level in Washington.

On Wednesday, May 6th I received a fundraising letter from Gary Randall on Faith & Freedom Foundation letterhead (right-click on thumbnails to view full-size image). It was dated May 1st, but postmarked May 5th. The letter said "We are presently waiting for the Governor to sign the bill into law. With that done, we will file a referendum." It goes on to state how "Your donation is urgently needed now", and ends with "P.S. Your contribution to Faith & Freedom Foundation is tax-deductible". Enclosed with the letter was a pre-printed donation envelope with the instructions "Make tax-deductible checks payable to Faith & Freedom Foundation". No other donation options (to give to the referendum PAC, for example) were listed anywhere in the letter or on the envelope.

This fundraising letter is just the latest in a string of unethical fundraising fake-outs Oregon Gary has perpetrated. A more detailed timeline lies tucked below the fold...

http://www.washblog.com/story/2009/5/7/19346/97178

Then the author goes on to show how 13 separate "urgent pleas for money" were sent out over the past 13 weeks to put money into a pot to fight for a referendum to strip gay rights - even though it wasn't legally able to collect money yet - plus the number of times someone clicking through would have been confused and made a donation directly to Gary rather than to the PAC they would have expected to be funding.

Not that I'm feeling much sympathy for anyone willing to donate to a group trying to strip GLBT citizens of any equal protections under the law - but do want to point out what the underlying cause is of the organizers. It's their job, it's their career, it's their industry.

Eventually, we'll get a chance to look at the books like we did Maggie Gallagher's Intitute for Marriage where she's pulling in a sweet little $125,000 a year salary out of the average $330,000 per year donations (on top of the $40,000+ that Bush's Faith based money paid her to "promote marriage" in her newspaper columns but failed to disclose to anyone for months that she was being paid to promote a certain point of view)- she's also currently President of NOM who hasn't responded to the legal requirements to supply NOM's tax form 990 which the IRS requires all groups like this to provide upon request

So I guess we have to wait for tax season to roll around to find out how much Gary is able to pocket from formenting hate and bigotry.