Status of FPPC Complaint and fine proposed against LDS Church
A Stipulation [link to PDF version] in the matter of whether the LDS Church reported non-monetary contributions on time during the 2008 election has been completed and will be submitted for final action on June 10th. The Stipulation fines the Church $5,539.00. This is equal to 15% of the amount of money deemed to have been reported late. The 13 separate counts at issue totaled $36,928.00. The stipulation notes the dates and amounts of the late-reported donations.
Where did the money donated to Protect Marriage come from?
California - 75% of the monetary contributions ($27,470,846)
Utah - 7% of the monetary contributions ($2,549,273)
Texas - 3% of the monetary contributions ($1,120,775)
Connecticut - 3% of the monetary contributions ($1,167,450) This includes a $1 million donation from the Catholic Fraternal Organization, the Knights of Columbus.
Everywhere else - 12% of the monetary contributions ($4,220,404)
Total monetary contributions to Protect Marriage come to $40,042,107.98. This does not include about $200,000 in loans and $600,000 in non-monetary donations (including $190,000 from the LDS Church). The Protect Marriage coalition was not the only money-gathering committee in favor of Prop 8, but it was by far the largest. All the other committees combined gathered less than $4 million. According to our research, at least half of the monetary contributions were from individual Mormons.
What the PR Guys Said About the Campaign:
In the February, 2009 issue of Politics Magazine, Frank Schubert and Jeff Flint of Schubert Flint Public Affairs wrote about how they got Proposition 8 passed in California. Their conclusion: “Members of the Mormon faith played an important part of the Yes on 8 coalition, but were only a part of our winning coalition. We had the support of virtually the entire faith community in California. Prop 8 didn’t win because of the Mormons. It won because we created superior advertising that defined the issues on our terms; because we built a diverse coalition; and, most importantly, because we activated that coalition at the grassroots level in a way that had never before been done.”
For more excerpts from their story, see this post.
How and to what extent did Mormons get involved?
There are about 770,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, according to the most recent statistics published in its 2007-2008 Almanac. These LDS Church members account for about 2% of California’s population. In a letter dated June 29, 2008, Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City called for church members to work hard to pass Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 is a proposed Constitutional Amendment that would change the state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Many, if not most, Mormons have responded to the church leaders’ request for assistance on this matter by actively campaigning for and donating to protectmarriage.com. All donations of $1,000 or more are reported daily to the California Secretary of State. Smaller donations are reported less often.
How much money have LDS donors provided to this campaign? That is what this website is all about. Can a small stone make a big ripple as it rolls forth? Are Mormon contributors a significant source of money and manpower in this election?
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Click here to see a complete list of donors of amounts over $1,000 to Proposition 8’s ProtectMarriage Committee
and to identify LDS donors. The list is current to January 30, 2009.
(Be patient– it’s a large spreadsheet and takes awhile to load.)
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Click here to see a list of donors of amounts over $1,000 to the National Organization for Marriage-California Prop 8 support committee.
This list is current through June 30, 2009.
Click here to see a complete list of small donors.
The list is current through October 18, 2008.
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Click here for a list of expenditures by category through December 31, 2008.
Click here for a list of expenditures by payee through December 31, 2008.
Click here to travel to the LDS Church Contribution Page at the CA Secretary of State.
Click here for a list of LDS Church Contributions sorted by date.
Click here for a list of LDS Church Contributions sorted by Payee.
Click here for a list of LDS Church Contributions sorted by Category.
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Come back and check on this work-in-progress throughout the election season and until all the donation reports are in. We’ll be here, adding LDS membership updates as we receive them. You can contact us at: yeson8donors@mormonsfor8.com.