Right-Wing Dirty Tricks

Conservative anti-gay crusaders will stop at nothing to pass Amendment 2 and Proposition 8 in California. Yesterday in the last few days of fundraising in both states, early voting in Florida and the last few days of the election, a coordinated cyber attack knocked out the websites of both campaigns fighting these hate-filled laws. SayNo2 was down for about two and a half hours. The point was to prevent people from making campaign contributions and learn about the lies and misrepresentations the hate amendment sponsors are pushing, but are being opposed by honest, law-abiding, truly American citizens in Florida and California.

Even more dirty tricks are being used in Florida as Waymon Hudson at Bilerico Florida shows:

Dirty tricks, money funneling, and lawsuits- oh my! My investigation into the misdeeds and dishonest campaign tactics of the backers of Florida's Amendment 2 just keeps getting nastier and more disturbing...

I reported earlier about Florida Red & Blue, the group behind the SayNo2 Campaign to defeat Amendment 2, filing a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court asking a judge to force the group campaigning for Amendment 2 (Florida4Marriage) to disclose all of its donors and stop airing its TV ads. This came after a formal complaint with the Florida Election Commission asking for an investigation into Florida4Marriage illegal campaigning tactics.

In emails obtained exclusively by the Bilerico Project Florida, the proof of these money funneling activities is shown. And it turns out the dirty tricks and donor hiding goes a lot further than we previously thought...

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We already knew John Stemberger, the head of Florida4Marriage, has sent emails detailing how donors could illegally skirt campaign finance reporting laws by funneling money through a non-profit organization, Florida Family Action, which he appears to have established for just that purpose.

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Of the total contributions to Florida4Marriage.org at last reporting (approximately $1,500,000), roughly 52% came from Florida Family Action.

Most recently, Florida4Marriage reported an in-kind contribution of $350,000 from Florida Family Action for the purchase of advertising. This is odd, since the ads all say "paid for and approved by Florida4Marriage", not Florida Family Action. In fact, at least three media outlets- WTSP Tampa, WTVT Tampa Bay, and WKMG Orlando- have confirmed that the name of the organization for which the purchases were made is Florida4Marriage.org although no direct expenditure from the campaign account for these media buys has been reported.

It seems illegal identification of ads goes along with the dirty money expenditures...

Tactics like this continue to prove that the backers of the hate amendment (and Prop 8 in California) don't really care about right or wrong, they only care about winning, no matter what the tactics and no matter what the effects on tax-paying American citizens.