As I warned everyone about last month, the Yes on 8 campaign - Ron Prentice and ProtectMarriage.com - have filed suit against California campaign disclosure laws:
The Proposition 8 campaign has filed a federal suit challenging the constitutionality of California's campaign finance laws that compel disclosure of personal information by campaign donors who they said have been threatened and harassed.
The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, cites numerous examples of menacing e-mails, phone calls and postcards, including death threats, allegedly made by opponents of the November ballot measure that banned same-sex measure in the state.
"This harassment is made possible because of California's unconstitutional campaign finance disclosure rules," Ron Prentice, chairman of the Yes on 8 campaign, said in a prepared statement.
Prentice noted that as applied to ballot measure committees, "even donors of as little as $100 must have their names, home addresses and employers listed on public documents."
It ought to be noted, for the record and in every media account on this story, that Ron Prentice signed his name to an effort to blackmail No on 8 donors back in October.
One wonders if they're going to use themselves as an example of why the laws should be tossed.
Further, in yet another act of hypocrisy, the very people claiming that courts should not overturn "the will of the voters" are suing to undo the outcome of the Political Reform Act of 1974 - which, you guessed it, was passed by voters that year as Proposition 9.
It would be laughable if the attack wasn't such a dangerous threat to our democracy. If they are successful, the anti-marriage forces will be able to raise FAR more money than they did this year. Companies that rely on same sex marriage supporters for their profits could take that money, give it to the haters, without the public knowing or being able to take their business elsewhere. It could provide their side with a significant financial advantage over ours in a future ballot campaign.
And it also opens the door other abuses of the initiative process, enabling it to be even more dominated by money than it already is as the true sources of large donations could more easily be masked - especially from corporations. |
