Fred Karger filed a formal complaint with the California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) on Friday, April 13, 2012 against the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) for not reporting a $10,000 contribution from Governor Mitt Romney. The Romney contribution was given to NOM on October 14, 2008.
“NOM has once again conspired to hide its contributions, and this time it was Mitt Romney’s,” stated Karger. “The recently unsealed documents (coincidentally from my last campaign ethics violation complaint against NOM in Maine) revealed that NOM received the $10,000 on October 14, 2008 from Romney’s Alabama PAC “Free and Strong America.” That was only 3 weeks before the Prop 8 election in which NOM was heavily involved. Funny that NOM appears to have reported all the contributions that it received before and after Romney’s, but failed to report Governor Romney’s $10,000 to ban gay marriage in California.”
“The Maine Ethics Commission and Attorney General’s office have done a phenomenal job of gathering evidence in the money laundering case I filed against NOM on August 24, 2009. The 29 Exhibits they collected are proving to be NOM’s undoing. NOM’s veil of deceit and lies has finally been lifted.”
“It looks like it was Exhibit 10 in the Maine case: National Organization for Marriage v. Walter F. McKee, et al which is NOM’s 2008 990 Federal Tax Return that lists the unreported $10,000 Romney contribution.”
“Mitt Romney and NOM appear to have gone to a lot of trouble to hide his contribution. I am sure that Romney’s $10K was never meant to never see the light of day.”
NOM was formed in 2007 to qualify and pass Proposition 8 in California, a state Constitutional Amendment to undo the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed gay marriage in California. Back then NOM proudly listed all its contributors to show its vast influence in the Prop 8 campaign. It claimed to be the biggest donor to the Yes on 8 campaign.
Ever since 2009, it appears NOM tried to launder money through its national organization, its Educational Fund or one of its state PACs.
“I have been tracking NOM since we went up against each other for the first time in July of 2008. I led the boycott of one of the largest donors, San Diego hotelier Doug Manchester. Manchester gave $125,000 to NOM to pass Prop 8. Along with Unite Here Local #30, we launched our successful boycott of Manchester’s hotels. The largest, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, reported losing $1 million per month from the still ongoing boycott.”
