Focus pours cash on initiative
Focus on the Family is turning out to be a top donor to backers of a California ballot initiative that would outlaw same-sex marriage, according to California Secretary of State's Office records.
In June, the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Proposition 8, if passed, would essentially circumvent the court's decision by restoring the state definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
Between Dec. 2007 and July, Focus donated $448,406 to support Proposition 8, with most of the money going to ProtectMarriage.com, a California-based coalition. Its largest donation, $250,000, came in June, one month after the court ruling.
Focus is the seventh biggest donor among Proposition 8 supporters, according to the California Secretary of State's Office.
Other major donors are Elsa Prince, a Focus board member ($450,000); the American Family Association ($500,000); Fieldstead & Co. ($600,000); the John Templeton Foundation ($900,000); and the National Organization for Marriage ($941,134.80).
The top donor is Knights of Columbus, which is based in New Haven, Conn., and acts as a political arm of the Catholic Church. The group has given $1.275 million in support of Proposition 8, the secretary of state's records show.
Nonprofit groups like Focus and the American Family Association, both 501(c)3s, are legally able to donate up to 15 percent of their annual budget to lobbying efforts.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst of Focus Action, the lobbying arm of Focus on the Family, said the organization felt compelled to get involved because if same-sex marriage remains legal in California, it's bound to become legal nationwide.
"The strategy here by activist groups is to create enough legal problems in other states" that state justices end up legalizing same-sex marriage, Hausknecht said.
Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, said Proposition 8 is "the Super Bowl of the same-sex marriage issue. "
"For good or bad, what happens in California is transferred to the rest of the country," he said.
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