Maine's Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices fined National Organization for Marriage more than $50,000 on Wednesday and ordered it to reveal the donors who backed its efforts to repeal the state's gay marriage law, according to The Associated Press.
The ethics commission found that NOM violated campaign finance laws by failing to properly register as a ballot question committee and file financial reports in the 2009 referendum that struck down gay marriage, the AP reported. Under Maine law, groups must register if they raise or spend more than $5,000 to influence a statewide ballot question.
The commission also ruled that the organization must file a campaign finance report, which would force it to disclose the names of its donors, according to the AP.
NOM has fought for years to keep its donor list secret, saying doing so would put its contributors at risk for harassment and intimidation, the AP reported.
A lawyer for the organization vowed to appeal the ethic commission's decision in state court, and members of the panel said they expect litigation to continue for at least a year, according to the AP.
NOM gave nearly $2 million to Stand for Marriage Maine for the 2009 referendum, or more than 60 percent of the political action committee's expenditures, ethics investigators said in a report released earlier this month, the AP reported.
Investigators found that the national group "intentionally set up its fundraising strategy to avoid disclosure laws" by not allowing donors to mark that the funds were to be used to defeat same-sex marriage in Maine, according to the AP.
Investigators say emails soliciting donations and the group's finances clearly show that more than $5,000 was raised with the purpose of assisting the Maine campaign, the AP reported.
Walt McKee, chairman of the ethics panel, said not fining the group would amount to "accepting a mockery" of Maine's disclosure laws, according to the AP.
The organization argues that by not raising money specifically earmarked to influence the Maine gay marriage question, it was explicitly working to stay within the bounds of the state's law, the AP reported.
"We didn't create a scheme, we tried to follow the law," Brian Brown, president of the Washington, D.C.-based organization, told the four-member panel on Wednesday, according to the AP.
Commissioners said Brown's dual role and the fact that the national group controlled a majority of the PAC's funds was problematic for its argument that the funds weren't raised to influence the Maine campaign, the AP reported.
The group says that it's being targeted because of its stance on gay marriage and that groups on the other side of the issue, such as the Human Rights Campaign, followed the same guidelines, according to the AP.
