Romney Helped Fund Race-Baiting, Anti-LGBT Group, Secret Document Shows
Earlier this week, we told you about the previously secret documents that revealed the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) divisive, race-baiting strategy for combating marriage equality — a strategy which was quickly denounced by leading civil rights organizations including the NAACP.
Another secret document revealed today by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) shows that NOM’s hateful effort to take away marriage equality in California in 2008 was funded by none other than leading Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, via his Free and Strong America PAC.
Check out the previously secret document, via HRC:
In a move that raises several questions, it appears that Romney’s PAC used an elaborate scheme to evade disclosing its donation. If the federal account of Romney PAC had made the donation, it would have been quickly disclosed in Federal Election Commission reports. Instead, the more obscure Alabama chapter of Romney’s PAC made the donation to NOM. As the Huffington Post notes, Alabama’s lax campaign finance laws make it a haven for questionable political spending activities.
HRC was quick to raise questions about the donation:
“It’s clear now that Romney was a major financial donor to Prop. 8,” said Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president for communications. “But it’s also clear that his campaign very cleverly hid this contribution in an obscure Alabama PAC.”
“His spokesperson said that Romney had financially supported Prop 8 but there’s no disclosure of a contribution to any Prop. 8 effort, personal or through the national or Alabama PAC,” Sainz added. “He instead chose to give to NOM, an organization that has a history of shielding its donors. For what other purpose would you contribute $10,000 to NOM three weeks before the election other than Prop 8?”
HRC’s president also called Romney’s funding of NOM’s hateful campaign “beyond despicable”:
“Mitt Romney’s funding of a hate-filled campaign designed to drive a wedge between Americans is beyond despicable,” said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign.
If not for the whistleblower who provided the NOM document to HRC, it’s possible that Romney’s donation to NOM may never have come to light.
Throughout the 2012 campaign, Romney’s penchant for secrecy has raised questions, particularly concerning his refusal to release most of his tax records, the disclosure of a previously unknown Swiss bank account, and the deletion of nearly all emails from his term as governor of Massachusetts.
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Does Mitt Romney agree with NOM’s shameful and divisive strategy of pitting African-Americans and Latinos against LGBT people in order to halt progress toward marriage equality?
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