Dirty Money

Though roundly defeated in the last election, the National Organization for Marriage is still committed to blocking marriage equality. Some evidence suggests that it’s turning to harsher speech, hiding donations, and rolling back campaign disclosure laws to accomplish its goals.

BY E.J. Graff

March 25 2013 4:00 AM ET

How identical were the four state campaigns?
As of January 31, 2013, the websites of Preserve Marriage Washington and Maryland Marriage Alliance were hard to tell apart. Each had the same design, the same stock photo in the background, and in the center, “thank you and please still donate” letters that included much of the same language. The websites had nearly identical tabs. While the letters were tweaked, some of their language could be compared easily:

The Protect Marriage Maine and Minnesota for Marriage websites were built on a similar design, albeit a little more customized, with different stock photos in the background. However, these two websites included nearly the same tabs, and once again, much of the material was identical. Here are some comparisons from the “Threat to Marriage” tab:

—Additional reporting by Ayako Kubodera