NOM Sues To Evade Maine Election Law

The National Organization for Marriage wants to participate in next year's state legislative and gubernatorial elections in Maine by telling voters candidates' views on marriage equality and is suing to take part without revealing the details of its finances.

Lawyers for the New Jersey-based group have filed an amended complaint in U.S. district court asking that it be exempt from state laws requiring financial disclosures. Under a ruling by the state Ethics Commission, in order to participate in the upcoming elections NOM would have to register as a political action group and submit reports on its expenditures in the recent Question 1 campaign. NOM spent an estimated $1 million to persuade voters to pass Question 1, which repealed Maine's marriage equality law, but the group does not make public its contributor list nor its expenditures.

"We added additional claims that go beyond initiative campaign finance laws to campaign finance laws that deal with candidate elections because NOM would like to participate in state elections," Jim Bopp, an attorney for NOM, told Maine Public Broadcasting Network. He called Maine's current election rules "unconstitutional."

Equality groups familiar with Maine elections say the effort will backfire. "We know the characteristic of Maine -- we come from a live-and-let-live state," says Betsy Smith of Equality Maine, an organization that supports same-sex marriage and attempted to defeat Question 1. "We don't like people from away telling us what to do," Smith says. "And so here is a situation where a national organization is saying they're going to come in and tell people how they should vote -- not only on an issue, but now on who should represent them. And that just doesn't play well."

Marc Mutty, a representative for the Catholic Diocese of Portland says Smith's argument isn't valid, citing Planned Parenthood and Family Planning's lobbying in Maine's electoral process, but state senate president Libby Mitchell, a Democrat who supported the marriage equality bill, disagrees. "I think the difference in other national groups is that their willing to be scrutinized themselves," Mitchell says. "What's the source of their funding? So welcome to Maine, but you have to play by our rules."